The situation, to be sure, is different. Providence is the chief city in Rhode Island and there are naturally many Brown graduates among her influential citizens and government officials; unfortunately, most Massachusetts Harvard graduates tend to live in Boston or the suburbs and have little interest in or control over Cambridge affairs. Equally important is the fact that Harvard is only one of many Greater Boston cultural attractions, while without Brown, Providence would be nearly devoid of many such opportunities.
The fact remains, however, that many Providence residents who do the most for Brown in terms of money, interest, and co-operation never even went to college, let alone graduated from Brown.
Perhaps if the University were to encourage the attendance and interest of local residents at the academic, political, and cultural events it sponsors, Cambridge people too might develop a real affection and need for Harvard.
Brown also has politically wise public relations men who know that "no private institution can make too many enemies." Brown makes a conscious and determined effort to cultivate the politicians of Providence; Harvard would do well to start understanding and respecting the workings of Cambridge city politics.
Charles P. Whitlock, Harvard's Assistant to the President for Civic Affairs, has made a promising start in the field of public relations; indeed many City Councilmen have been impressed with the University's attitude towards the community since Whitlock assumed his post three years ago. This is a start, but one man cannot do the job alone.
Administrative trials are, however, only a part of the town-gown tradition, and in another area--student-police relations--Brown fares much worse than Harvard. More than just spring rioting was involved in a brawl in March between Brown boys and the police outside a Providence restaurant. Rough abuse and foul language, apparently regular features of police action in the Brown community, only increased the antagonism that Brown men feel towards the Providence Police.
The antagonism is also renewed in the daily commuter battle, and this perhaps is the crux of much of the problem. Although many local boys live at the College, Brown still has a large number of commuting students; unfortunately, Providence has no public transportation system approximating the MTA. The result, of course, is that many commuters, in addition to a number of resident students, have cars at school. There is little room in the heavily settled university area for parking facilities, and most students must leave their automobiles on the street, in limited (two-hour) parking spaces.
Enter now the Providence police. In an attempt to enforce strictly the city's parking ordinances, officers cruise around on motorcycles during the day, marking the wheels of the parked cars with chalk. If the mark has not disappeared when the policeman returns in two hours, the student receives a blue ticket and a $3 over-parking fine.
Just as diligent as the police department, howver, is the chalkorasing brigade, made up of commuters and sympathetic resident students, which is duty bound to erase a chalk mark on the wheel of any car in the Brown neighborhood. What perhaps started out as a game, has now become a source of constant friction.
Relations with the police are admittedly worse than usual this spring--largely because of the "Stillwell affair." During the winter, a Pembroke student, Stephanie Stillwell, was stabbed and severly wounded near the college. In an all-out attempt to catch the as yet unapprehended criminal, Providence Police have concentrated an unusually large number of men in the Brown area. Naturally, every time there is a minor student demonstration enough policemen arrive at the scene to turn it into a major problem.
Involvement of Harvard students with the police usually doesn't go much further than a reminder by a Yard cop to "stop riding that bicyle in the Yard." Indeed the recent diploma riots proved the point. Neither the University nor the Cambridge police, unaccustomed to mob demonstrations from Harvard students, seemed quite sure how to handle the demonstration. There was little brutality or violence on either night, and the police used tear gas during the second riot largely so they wouldn't have to spend the entire evening pleading with the crowd to disperse. Police in Cambridge just are not used to serious trouble from Harvard students, and the disciplinary action of the respected if not feared University force is almost always sufficient to keep order around the College.