Until the early nineties, the liberal slant of The Crimson seemed to alienate the moderate and conservative students.

According to Stephen E. Frank '95, a former editorial chair, the more conservative editors often did not attend editorial meetings, because they thought that they would be voted down.

"A lot of students felt they were excluded from The Crimson, because they had more moderate or right-wing views," he says.

Frank attributes the creation of ultra-right-wing publications such as Peninsula in the early '90s in part to a perceived lack of conservative representation on The Crimson staff.

During his years at The Crimson, many of the paper's traditionally liberal stances, such as support of rent control in Cambridge, were reversed, Frank says. But not all Crimson editors were pleased by this shift in perspective.

"This place has moved far, far to the right in just the past 2.5 years I've been here," says Ira E. Stoll '94, the 120th Crimson president, in the spring 1993 open book. "I say this out of concern for this paper and how it is perceived in the community."

The Crimson as a Campus Leader

Students agree that as Harvard's only daily newspaper, The Crimson plays an important part in the network of large student organizations that shape the campus, whether they are focused on politics, public service or the arts.

"People who were part of extracurriculars definitely read it each morning which I'm sure had an effect on the way events unfolded," Anestis says.

And while Helen E. Shaw '98, outgoing president of the Harvard Dramatic Club, didn't feel that Crimson arts reviewers were always on target, she agreed that "it has always been a great source of publicity."

"It's impressive that The Crimson tries to cover as much of the Harvard theater scene as possible," Shaw says.

"The Crimson executives tended to be people who were very active and outgoing and quite frankly friends with a lot of student leaders," Anestis says. This leads to a comfortable dialogue between The Crimson and student organizations, he adds.

Most student leaders interviewed said that Crimson reporters are very professional, although compers can be "a little rough around the edges," according to Roy E. Bahat '98, president of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) in 1997.

Geoffrey C. Rapp '98, IOP SAC chair in 1997, says he is friends with several Crimson executives. But he says those he dealt with professionally were "rude, insensitive and generally mean."

"While many execs are great people, it seems the only ones I have ever had to deal with have been the outliers, who have definite problems," Rapp says.