In recent months, several conservative campus organizations, ranging from the Association Against Learning in the Absence of Religion and Morality (AALARM) to Peninsula to the executive board of the Harvard Republican Club, have launched a vocal campaign against what they describe as a single, univocal campus left. Concentrating their attacks on gay rights and women's rights, these groups have sought to portray themselves as embattled crusaders for morality in a spiritual wasteland...
These groups have a right to say what they want and as loudly as they want...but no one need be fooled by their rhetoric...There is no battle at Harvard between Truth and Relativism, simply a group of media-crazed loudmouths attempting to impose their bigoted values on the rest of the University.
Everyone experiences a few infamous "firsts" at Harvard. The first walk to the Quad. The first time lotteried out of a Core course. That first glorious mouthful of venerable vegetables.
Not all Harvard rites of passage can be laughed off after a few slugs of Pepto-Bismol, however. Sometimes students are better left uninitiated. A good time to just say "no" is when you receive invitations to parties or punching events at one of the Harvard community's nine all-male final clubs...
For the Record
Most would argue that the University ended offical distinctions in its treatment of male and female undergraduates with the final integration of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges in 1976. But although men and women now share classes, libraries and dining halls, there is still one thing they cannot share--a room...
And that barrier must tumble if Harvard is to live up to its policy of treating all students as equal and free-thinking individuals. Just as the Faculty recently expressed concern about denying Harvard students free speech rights guaranteed to the public, we all should bemoan campus living restrictions that would be considered ridiculous in the real world...
Hard to swallow, difficult to digest and often painful to look at, the daily offerings of Harvard Dining Services (HDS) are in need of radical overhaul...Among college dining services, HDS is still a lemon.
No bragging phone calls to friends at state schools. No rallies on the Widener steps. No explosion of tee-shirt sales in the Square. By these measures, it's been an off-year for Harvard in intercollegiate competition.
This year, however, hasn't been as bad for the University as some people suppose. Harvard's math team, chess team, bridge team and on-topic debate team placed first in the country against formidable opposition. Put bluntly, we kicked some intellectual butt...