The study, completed on May 14, proved to be the ultimate recognition of culturalism in the place of politics at Harvard. The long-awaited "solution" to problems of difference at the College turned out to be a codification of the status quo.
The report's centerpiece was its proposal to create something called a Mediation Service, which would train "a few talented and dedicated administrators, students and faculty" to provide "mediation assistance...to work through conflicts concerning race." Instead of offering new directions for coming together, the Negotiations Project suggested that we make pulling apart a little easier.
We may regret this decision. Political scientists have long identified the importance of "cross-cutting cleavages" in keeping pluralist societies alive. The idea is that individuals will have more than one group affiliation they care about--so they won't end up fracturing into single autonomous groups with opposing interests. As long as a single religious group doesn't populate one economic stratum, for example, religion and class can't combine to create a single warring faction.
At Harvard, fewer places exist where diverse groups come together, threatening to destroy the cross-cutting cleavages that different students might feel. "Cultural societies" have cropped up for every group conceivable, from Irish to Caribbean. At the same time, the organizations that might unite us ideologically are in near-comas.
The Democratic and Republican groups on campus are practically nonexistent. Some groups on the right--the Conservative Club, The Harvard Salient, the Peninsula--have stayed alive on the strength of their claims to be oppressed minorities. Similar groups on the left, like the Progressive Students Association, are tiny or dying.
And what used to be a student center for liberals on campus--The Crimson--has become almost totally depoliticized. Editors are no longer left-wing ideologues--most are apolitical, moderate or even conservative. This year's editorial chair is working for the Republican Party this summer. Next year, I expect almost all of the news executives will not call themselves liberals.
What Harvard has gained with the death of politics is its own cultural war, played out weekly in accusations, responses and general back-biting that would make Patrick Buchanan proud. And the administration is slowly going about the business of institutionalizing this cultural war. Like many liberals, Harvard's administrators avoid an honest discussion of race, fearing they will be labeled "insensitive" for even mentioning cultural difference.
But if we are to move ahead, to come together, to live in this community without fear and mistrust, we must revitalize politics. We must talk honestly and openly about how we can use what we have in common to over-come what we don't. We must learn the time-honored political skills of compromise and coalition-building. We shouldn't condone and encourage separation.
Today we will hear a thing or two about being tomorrow's leaders. Let's hope that when tomorrow comes, we will have learned to live with each other more happily than we do now.
John A. Cloud '93 was editorial chair of The Crimson in 1992.
We've created a campus where even decent people like Dean Epps are called 'insensitive.'