A sampling of what Harvard people are saying, and what is being said about Harvard, in the press.

Paradigm Lost

Much of the evidence that has surfaced in support of theories of pc-totalitarianism has been drawn from a particular anecdote involving Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom. According to Dinesh D' Souza, author of Illiberal Education, the anti-pc manifesto, three Black students charged Thernstrom with racial insensitivity in his use of slave owners' journals in teaching American history. The students, as the story goes, did not confront Thernstrom, but rather went to the administration and to The Crimson. Thernstrom, without a chance to defend himself, was branded a racist. But in this week's Nation, Jon Wiener claims to present "What Really Happened at Harvard," alleging that D' Souza distorted the facts of the case:

In fact, almost every element of the story D' Souza tells is erroneous. "I talked with one of the students who had complained about Thernstrom," says Orlando Patterson, professor of sociology at Harvard. "She was genuinely upset about one of his lectures. This was not an ideological reaction, it was a personal and emotional one. She said she did not want to make it a political issue, and had deliberately rejected attempts by more political students to make it into a cause. She was trembling with rage at the Crimson for making this public..."

Paula Ford is one of the students who complained about Thernstrom; today she is enrolled at Harvard Law School. D'Souza never interviewed her, she says. Although he reported that the students never complained directly to Thernstrom, she says she and several of her friends talked to Thernstrom after class "a couple of times"-especially after his lecture on the black family.

Regarding Thernstrom's decision not to teach the course again, Ford said she was "surprised" and "not happy" to hear it. "That was not our goal. Our goal was to point out areas in his lectures that we thought were inaccurate and possible could be changed. To me, it's a big overre action for him to decide not to teach the course again because of that.

"There is no Thernstrom case," concludes Martin Kilson, professor of government at Harvard. "There were 680 black students at Harvard at the time. A couple of them complained about his interpretations of black experience. That got translated into an attack on freedom of speech by black students. Nothing like that ever happened at Harvard. It's a marvelous example of the skill of the neocons at taking small events and translating them into weapons against the pluralistic thrust on American campuses."

Gush, Gush

Boston Globe columnist David Nyhan wrote an op-ed piece this week entitled "Luck of the Harvards," a look at President Neil L. Rudenstine that was, well, more than slightly complementary:

In a Globe group interview last week he made clear that he holds an expansive view of his mission. What happened to Oxford and Cambridge, and the relative decline of the funding and prestige of these two universities in the face of a hostile national government and an indifferent British public, will not happen Harvard on his watch-not if he can help it.

Like a seasoned skipper taking over a venerable tall ship, he's going about his business in seamanlike fashion. He's tightening sail here, testing rigging there, replacing this belaying that, preparing for a voyage that will test both crew and hull in the tempest of the '90s.

For more than 350 years, almost twice as long as this has been a country, Harvard has plugged along, breaking the path. The Harvards have had only 26 presidents. Now they've come up with a gifted administrator off the Princeton campus and the foundation A-Team. He carries the hopes of not just Harvard's affluent alumni; he has a job to do for America.