The Southwestern Biz

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I am writing in reference to the March 6 front page article which dealt with the Southwestern Company and its recruiting practices at Harvard. This article, as has been characteristic of The Crimson's coverage of the Company over the past few years, was written more as an expose of Southwestern's summer sales program than as an objective piece of journalism. As a former Southwestern salesman I would like to present the other side of the "Southwestern story."

My own experience with the Southwestern Company over the past three years has been quite favorable. My first contact was in the spring of my Freshman year when I was approached by a student salesman who wanted to discuss the program with me. Although the job sounded unconventional (door-to-door, commission-only book selling for the entire summer) the prospect of earning $2500-$3000 (average for first year salesman) was very attractive. Since I already had summer plans, however, I decided to wait until the next summer to sell.

My selling experience during the summer of 1979 was extremely rewarding. I was sent with the Harvard group to Los Angeles, (hardly the "Bible Belt") where I sold educational books (the two-volume Webster's Student Handbook Set) door-to-door to middle-class families. The job was very intense: long hours on foot, six days a week. By the end of the summer, however. I had not only met more interesting people than I could hope to count, but had also made more than twice the average earnings of a first-year salesman.

Although my summer with Southwestern was extremely successful, the job is obviously not for everybody. A great deal of commitment and determination is necessary in dealing with the rigorous and sometimes frustrating selling routine. Southwestern does not try to hide this face, but instead stresses it during recruiting. No one is forced or "conned" into selling for the summer: if offered a job (after hearing a lengthy description of the terms) a student can either accept or refuse, as with any other job offer.

It would seem to me, therefore, that the "con job" that is being pulled is not by the Southwestern Company on unsuspecting Harvard undergraduates, but, to this contrary, by the press and university administration on the Company and on students looking for a legitimate, challenging summer job. By restricting recruiting and whitewashing the Company whenever the opportunity presents itself, the administration and media have made it extremely difficult for undergraduates to find out about the program at all, much less get an objective picture of it. Under such conditions, how can a student who might genuinely be interested in participating in the program hope to make that decision on his own? Willis Emmons '81