But Hrones says this discriminatory policy is business-as-usual for "the powers that be" at Harvard. It is a sign of the elitist nature of the University administration.

"This is opening up a lot of larger questions about how the University is run," Hrones says. "The Board has abdicated its role as the policy-making body to the Corporation, a bunch of rich men in a smoke-filled room."

According to Hrones, Harvard policymakers--who he defined as the President and the Corporation, as well as the administration and the Harvard Alumni Association--only give "lip-service" to important issues in higher education and seek complacent candidates for the Board of Overseers.

"The powers-that-be put in people who are content to be partied and shown the buildings," Hrones says.

"You have fundraisers controlling the education at Harvard and the crucial decisions of where Harvard is going academically and intellectually," he says.

Hrones also complained of a mailing by the Harvard Business School Alumni Association (HBSAA), containing a letter from Charles F. Milner, the association's president, which urged support for an HBS alumnus candidate.

"I would be delighted if you would join me in supporting our fellow HBS alumni in this election," Milner wrote in the letter.

"It's way out of line," Hrones says. "This is Harvard money used to favor one candidate."

Hrones also notes that the letter was written on HBSAA stationery, implying a University endorsement. Hrones says the HBS alumnus should withdraw from the election.

Armstrong, however, says "we live in a free society" and that an endorsement from HBSAA is not out-of-line.

"If the Business School feels that this is an outstanding candidate, then they have the right to say that," Armstrong says.

James Aisner '68, a spokesperson for HBS, says the letter's primary emphasis was the importance of voting. Aisner says it also "let them know that there was a 'local angle.'"

Though Hrones concedes that former classmates or teammates often endorse their friends, he says the HBSAA letter is different because it is an official Harvard organization.

"This could be a very explosive issue," Hrones says. "They want to perpetuate the system--it's an oligarchy, and the Board of Overseers is basically their jackal."

Overseeing Diversity