Looking Back

The following are excerpts chosen from Crimson staff editorials of the past decade.

Cutting Ties

This editorial was written in April 1984, after the Pi Eta Speakers Club published a newsletter containing derogatory references to women. President Derek C. Bok and other administrators issued statements condemning the letter. Nine months later, the University cut ties with the Pi Eta and the nine all-male final clubs.

Although helpful in alerting students to offensive behavior, the public declarations do not explore why such attitudes exist, and how they might be changed. The University's implicit acceptance and subsidization of all-male clubs--including the Pi Eta as well as nine final clubs--probably has something to do with it. Harvard currently offers the final clubs access to the steam heat system, centrex phones and alumni records. Such involvement with groups that, as a matter of policy, exclude women, can only be seen as an insult to the principle of total equality of women.

`Ivory Tower'

This editorial, called "Join the Community," was published on April 16, 1986, the day after students erected a shantytown in Harvard Yard, complete with a wooden "Ivory Tower."

Perhaps as they see the shantytown on their bi-weekly visits to the campus, the members of the Corporation will recognize their complicity in the injustice in South Africa. We are not confident that they will...The divestment activists have painted an accurate picture of the distance between the Corporation and the community of students, teachers, workers, and local residents who live here.

Fair Harvard

Titled "Happy Birthday?" this editorial ran on Sept. 4, 1986, at the height of the 350th celebration.

Harvard is 350 years old and is throwing itself a party. And, oh what a party. Derek Bok's on Time magazine, John Harvard's on his own postage stamp, chrysanthemums are on the steps of Widener, and the special 350th seal is on just about everything else....

Despite recalling its birth as the beginning of higher education in America, the University sadly missed this opportunity to re-examine either itself or education in general. Both are replete with problems, a serious review might have been a perfect birthday gift--from Harvard to its students, faculty, alumni and staff, and to the educators worldwide who view this university as a model for excellence. Enjoy your party, Harvard. But forgive us, if you will, for thinking beyond the celebration. Classes, thankfully, begin in a few weeks.