Old Clubs in a New Era

As the minority population at Harvard has grown, so has the number of minority students involved in Harvard's oldtime, established extracurricular organizations.

The distribution of minorities among the groups varies, and some group leaders say they wish they had more minority students in their organizations. But all group leaders interviewed say that, when working toward a common goal within their organizations, students from diverse backgrounds get along well.

Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra President Channing Yu '93 says the ethnic and racial composition of the Orchestra is "pretty balanced," as far as he can tell.

"Strings have a little bit more Asians and the winds have a little bit less," Yu says. Overall, he says, the composition of HRO "seems about the same" as the rest of the undergraduate population.

HRO president-elect Eugene H. Chung '94 offers a slightly different analysis. "I have to admit there are a lot of Asians by nature," he says. "A lot of Asians pick up string instruments."

"We just look at the program and note a lot of the names are Asian," Chung says.

The diverse members of the 100-member orchestra "get along really well," Yu says. "We're all there to play the music."

Harvard Lampoon President Alison G. Umminger '92 says that lack of diversity on the Lampoon staff is "a problem we have."

Umminger says the magazine's humor would be better if it had a more diverse staff.

"You gain so much from people coming from different backgrounds," Umminger says. "It's good for the magazine."

The humor magazine is run by "predominantly white men," she says, because it is predominantly white men who attempt to get on the magazine's staff.

Umminger says the Lampoon tries to deal with the problem by recruiting women and minorities who members know, but emphasizes that the Lampoon's problem not only affects the magazine's content, but also has implications for its reputation in the community.

Crimson President Rebecca L. Walkowitz '92 says "Clearly, it's not a good thing," that the Crimson staff is not representative of the Harvard community.

It is an important problem, Walkowitz says, because a newspaper should be representative of the community it serves. And the Crimson has fewer Blacks, women and openly gay staffers than it should, she says.

Walkowitz says the newspaper has tried to recruit minorities in the past. "I don't know how effective that is," she says.

The problem is related to who decides to comp the Crimson, Walkowitz says. And the solution is not easy, because "I really don't know what motivates people to walk in here at the beginning of freshman year," she says.

"Within the Crimson, the groups get along," Walkowitz says.

Harvard Advocate President Elizabeth C. Elsas '92 says her publication has changed greatly since it was founded 125 years ago.

In the beginning, the Advocate was an "all white male organization," she says.

Now, there are many women on the staff. Minority representation, however, could be improved, Elsas says, "We're still working on trying to have more racial diversity," she says. "It's something that we're conscious of."

"The problem with publications here is there are a lot of different magazines that address certain ethnic groups," Elsas says, citing Chinese East Wind and Black Diaspora. "It seems to separate things a little bit."

"It could be a place where people could interact together," Elsas says of the Advocate. "I hope that we will take an active role in terms of encouraging diversity."

Elsas says the Advocate hopes to encourage more minority participation by becoming, in a sense, more populist.

"The Advocate has the reputation of publishing things by people who are on staff," she says. But with a contest issue this year, Advocate staffers hope to draw from the entire undergraduate population.