AFTER CHOICE

When those portentous white envelopes slide underneath the doors of anxious first-years tomorrow morning, the randomization experiment will be nearly complete.... After the Class of '98 graduates, some of us will remember when the House had character, but none who lived with it intact will remain at the College....

But before the tentacles of bureaucracy do their dirty work and this scenario comes to life, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 must perform his promised re-evaluation of the randomization project one year from now. If the re-evaluation does not happen on schedule, there will be no students around to remind Lewis of his promise, and it may never happen at all.   March 18, 1998

SEEKING A VOICE

Two and a half months into the Undergraduate Council's new administration, we find ourselves asking, what has the council done lately?

According to council President Beth A. Stewart '00, the council has been quietly but purposefully working on issues from securing "fro-yo in the 'Berg" to making cable--at least in the House junior common rooms--a possibility for next semester.... But for all its hard work on these somewhat yawnable student life issues, the council has been conspicuously silent on matters rising higher than television, food and transportation....

Though predictable, the relative silence of the body this semester is disheartening. Long-term issues of immense significance to students--Ad Board reform, Core reform, Faculty diversity and especially financial aid, to name the most pressing--have not been publicly addressed by this term's council....

The political debates and social advocacy of the last administration have been shunned in favor of shorter meetings focusing on more immediately achievable goals.... The council must expand its focus to reinclude the significant social issues for which Harvard students need a voice, or risk finding itself in a new and even more disheartening state of irrelevance.   April 9, 1998

NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTTS

We support Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 in his crusade to ban smoking in all Harvard dorms. Students will welcome this long-anticipated policy that follows a trend to expand non-smoking areas both in Cambridge and around the country....

The cracks in the walls and doors of Harvard's many old dorm rooms allow smoke to leave its room of origin. It pollutes hallways and seeps through the doors of non-smokers. Thus, these innocents are put at a higher risk of smoking-related ailments by their fellow students....

The Committee on House Life, House masters and students should rally behind Lewis in support of a safer and less malodorous dorm environment, but should also open a dialogue with smokers to determine how best to meet their needs.   April 14, 1998

UNDER FIRE

In the year 2023, when this year's seniors return for their 25th reunion and recall the glory days of their Harvard experience, the diversity of background, culture, opinion and upbringing distributed among their peers will be foremost in their minds. Diversity is the apotheosis of today's Harvard experience--nay, of today's educational experience. But in the courts of law and public opinion, the opponents of affirmative action and diversity are winning a battle against these programs....

Colleges and universities are gateways to elite society. Education is the key that grants one access to privilege, to standing, to power. Universities therefore have a moral obligation to swing wide their doors and extend to those who have historically been missing from this elite an opportunity to change this situation.