The lessons from this episode are clear. The Environmental Safety Committee must release all relevant health data to the Harvard community immediately. The health bureaucracy must be streamlined so that relevant deans can notify students of hazards immediately. And a student should be placed on the Committee to prevent future lapses of judgement.

Harvard's closed decision-making processes have literally threatened the health of the University community.

OPENNESS has an ideological component. Harvard should make all efforts to ensure that people of all genders, races, classes and sexual orientations feel welcome to study here--while being careful not to limit Constitution-protected freedom of speech. This would involve a commitment to:

.Institute sensitivity training for Harvard police on both issues of sexual orientation and racial sensitivity. Their use of rubber gloves to fingerprint gays arrested in the Science Center bathroom was unnecessary and demeaning. The police have also had problems treating Black students in a fair and respectful manner.

.Hold mandatory date rape workshops for all first-year students. There is no excuse for Harvard to restrict such important protection to a voluntary basis.

.Censure, but not censor. The Harvard community should make clear that it disapproves of offensive speech, while allowing such speech nonetheless.

LAST but not least, a sincere commitment to openness involves listening to students and (here's the hard part) acting on student demands. It is absurd that members of the Corporation--which meets every two weeks--refuse to meet regularly with undergraduates. If they did, students could make clear the need to:

.Improve campus security. The escort service admits in the phone book that it cannot be used routinely for protection. Harvard must provide more funding for a full-fledged escort service and must provide for a 24 hour study area.

.Open discussion about student center. Students should have more input into the conversion of Memorial Hall into a student center--input that they never had before.

.Find a women's center. Harvard undergraduates deserve what almost all Ivy League students have: a place on campus where those interested in women's issues can meet.

THE issues may be numerous, but the fundamental question is not: Will Harvard continue to drift away from its academic mission, narrow-minded in its pursuit of dollars and closed to outside influence, until it loses its national preeminence? Or will it accept its responsibility as an educational institution, open its decision-making structures, and adapt for the future? The answer will largely depend on who is the next president.

Tune in next year.