Go to Harvard and turn left--these were the standard directions to the White House in 1961.

But as Washington politics have veered right, Harvard students have followed suit, and a campus that was firmly in favor of affirmative action now seems to be doubting its efficacy and fairness.

"At this point, it's doing more harm than good," says President of the Harvard Republican Club Jay Dickinson '98, who identifies himself as "pure white."

"It's not so bad at Harvard because everybody is smart here, but you can see it in the workforce," he says. "I have friends whose parents got slighted from jobs because of affirmative action, not because of merit."

But it is not just campus conservatives who are vocal on the issue. Many students of color say they are also re-examining the issue.

"Practically speaking, we need it. I'm from the South and if someone didn't force integration, a lot of white Southerners wouldn't do it on their own," says Ciara C. Torres '97. "On a philosophical basis, though, I hate it. It undermines minorities, and makes us seem like we need a leg up, like we are unequal."

"It's difficult enough to be accepted as a minority in this society," she continues. "With affirmative action policies, white people perceive an unfair advantage, even if there isn't one."

As students teeter on the brink of an increasingly competitive work-force and the Harvard campus grows more hostile towards affirmative action, it seems that "angry white male" syndrome may be descending upon a campus worried about job security and "getting ahead."

Quiet frustration with current affirmative action policies and whispers of "losing out" on jobs and internships are filtering through the campus, although students say they are vocally checked by P.C. politics.

"I came from a small, rural town in the upper Midwest and almost anyone could get into Harvard from there," says one man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "After affirmative action policies went into full swing, they wouldn't let normal people, you know, white people like myself, in. Last year, no one from my town got in, and it was because of affirmative action."

Sometimes campus attacks on affirmative action in hiring and admissions policies are more publicized--and personal.

For instance, David W. Brown '97, a Crimson editor, was attacked in the latest issue of Peninsula. In its "Out of Context" section, the conservative magazine printed quotes from Brown's editorials in the Boston Globe and The Crimson, and underneath his name, wrote "possible affirmative-action admit."

Brown, who is Black, says he thinks the nation's rightward slide is definitely reflected at Harvard. "You see a lot of your typical, chest-beating, angry white males, the group is smaller but just as vocal, and like the rest of the nation's, their arguments aren't too well thought out," he says.

"It's just not substantiated. The arguments against [affirmative action] appeal to fears that some unqualified Black male is going to steal your job, not the social reality," Brown says. "According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Report, 95 percent of senior executives in American industry are white males, even though they only compose 32 percent of the workforce. [White male] fears are not justified."

But many students remain unconvinced. And those who say they believe in the intent of affirmative action say they have problems when it comes to the application of the issue in hiring policies.