Civil Rights

The following letter was also sent to President Bok, Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner, and Harvard Magazine.

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Harvard's actions described so complacently in the July-August Harvard Magazine show amazing insensitivity to the needs and rights of students and suggest more the atmosphere of a dictatorship than the freedom of a respected institution of learning. At the same time that Harvard was denouncing its students for not taking their protest to Washington and was praising President Bok for his political activity, it was also attempting to terrorize its students into silence at home. When that attempt failed, it summoned the protesters before Harvard's equivalent of the Star Chamber, the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities--a body assembled contrary to its own regulations requiring student representation, and which failed to fix or try charges at a reasonable time. The irony that Daniel Steiner, Harvard's general counsel, should have observed was that the University was emulating South Africa's repression of political dissent.

One might view the University's actions as merely callous and unjust. However, there have been persistent reports that the University has harassed students and otherwise violated their civil rights (including by wiretapping). Such charges are serious and call for the speediest possible resolution. Should they be substantiated, one hopes that Harvard will be brave enough to admit to its mistakes and to make appropriate apologies and restitution to the victims. Harvard owes its alumni and students a thorough public explanation. James A. Glazier '84   Gary L. Ivens '84   John Bechhoefer '82   Daniel H. Reich '83