Zerhouni says that he was never informed of thetwo meetings, and he said that his roommates canattest to the fact that he never received any callfrom the board regarding the two meetings.
In a February 8 editorial for The Crimson,Zerhouni penned a criticism of the HRC entitled,"Fighting the Forces of Fascism."
In response to the editorial, the HRCthreatened legal action against The Crimson,claiming libel, but after The Crimson published aclarification, the action was dropped.
`House Divided'
The HRC has in the past experienced conflictbetween members of the far right and members whofeel HRC should embrace more of a "bigtent"Republicanism.
But Williams said that when she first joinedthe HRC upon coming to Harvard, the atmosphere ofintolerance that some say characterizes today'sclub was not prevalent.
"When I was there originally, it was inclusiveand all voices could be raised," Williams said."When the Peninsula members got involved, itbecame an exclusively ultra-conservative club."
Sarsfield said that the HRA was set up to"combat the ideological intolerance of the HRC."
Tribble explained that one of themisperceptions of the HRA is that it isexclusively moderate.
"It was kind of implied that we're a pro-choicegroup. We're pro-choice and pro-life," Tribblesaid. "We're not going to exclude members."
Tribble added that the HRC had engaged in apattern of irregular meetings since lastSeptember.
"The HRC had nothing in the Calendar of OpeningDays. I signed up at registration. I wasn'tcontacted for two months," Tribble said.
Tribble said that there have been only one ortwo meetings called during the entire year, andthe HRC had recruited "virtually no speakers."
"It all comes down to effectiveness," Tribblesaid. "A lot of them are bringing up thishouse-divided issue. Rather than have a stagnantclub that isn't doing anything, I think it's goodthat there's an effective, moderate conservativeforce at Harvard tapping into the conservativeenergy."
Tribble said that when he was calling studentsabout the HRA sponsored speech by Baker Professorof Economics Martin S. Feldstein, he discoveredthat the HRC was placing increasing pressure onits members to choose between one organization orthe other.
Tribble also said HRA members had encounteredopposition when they attended a recent HRC dinnerspeech by Thomson Professor of Government HarveyC. Mansfield '53.
"Our members were not welcomed there. They werebasically scowled at as not Republican," Tribblesaid.
Dickerson defended his organization andquestioned the motives behind the HRC's accusers.
"Everything's going very smoothly for us. It'sall speculation on their part," Dickerson said.
"Now that the club is running smoothly, theyseem to just want to stop it. It's just a smack inthe face," Dickerson added