Gomes' statement, and its coverage in TheCrimson, also stirred discussion among staffmembers.
"It's hard to overestimate how wild [the rally]was," Kurnick says. "There was a debate at TheCrimson for how big to play it. We didn't have anyprotocol for how to do it."
Rebecca L. Walkowitz '92, Crimson president atthe time, says The Crimson recognized the profoundimplications of Gomes' statement for Harvard.
"It wasn't a matter of shock value. It was amatter of a real ripple through the Harvardcommunity," she says. "We knew it would have alasting impact."
Walkowitz says a lack of openly gay editorscomplicated The Crimson's treatment of the issue.
"There were very few people who would havespoken of themselves as gay helping us think abouthow we were covering these kinds of stories," shesays.
Socioeconomic Diversity
Some former editors say the time commitmentrequired to advance up The Crimson ranks alienatedstudents who needed to work during the term.
"There was still an unspoken expectation thatthe more time you put in [at The Crimson], thebetter your chances were," Devall says.
"And if you had a job at the Fine Arts library,or as a baby sitter, there were just certain hoursyou knew you wouldn't be at the paper," she says."It became hard to decide how much time at TheCrimson was enough."
This year, The Crimson began offering limitedwork-study financial aid to some of its staff.
Former executives say they saw the need for afinancial aid program but could never agree on afool-proof plan to provide aid while maintainingconfidentiality. In other years, the plan wassimply not financially feasible.
"Sometimes it was mentioned in the context ofgeneral diversity," Gammill says. "We felt like wewanted more people who did not come fromcomfortable backgrounds."
Looking Ahead
Diversity at The Crimson is now in the hands ofa task force, headed by Jennifer 8. Lee '99, acurrent Crimson vice president.
Jennifer Lee says the task force has athree-fold mission: to diversify coverage, todiversify the opinion page and to diversify thecomposition of the staff.
"We need to look like the campus if we expectto cover it well," she says. "The Crimson is oneof the few things that ties the whole campustogether. If you believe in diversity, then ournewspaper needs to reflect that."