Harvard's leading conservative publication, The Harvard Salient, is now under new leadership.

Last Monday, the Board of Directors of The Salient--a bi-weekly political journal of a conservative nature-elected Kevin A. Shapiro '00-'99 its editor.

D. Brittain Bolen '00 became managing editor and G. Cabot Henderson '00 is the Salient's new business manager.

Shapiro is the second openly gay editor since the publication's founding in 1981.

"It is perhaps unusual to find a gay conservative at Harvard," he said. "[But] being gay doesn't mean you have to be naive."

Shapiro, a Winthrop House resident, said he has numerous goals for the Salient.

"We hope to generate more discussion on things that haven't been talked about before, ask pressing questions, and be the voice of common sense," he said.

Faculty diversity, including ideological diversity, is a topic Salient members say they hope to explore in-depth in upcoming issues, according to Shapiro. The Salient staff is also taking strides to increase its circulation on campus.

Henderson, a Dunster House resident and a candidate for president in this week's Undergraduate Council elections, said that the Salient hopes to continue in its aim "to provide a journalistic alternative to a predominantly liberal campus press."