Fay Should Reflect Radcliffe's Past

Why is it that charges of reverse discrimination seem to have so much instant credibility? The Crimson staff falls victim to the mentality that anything that appears to give women an extra advantage must be sexist. However, as the staff admits, there is a dramatic imbalance between prizes open to men and women. The amount of inequality embodied in the Fay Prize simply doesn't measure up to the multitude of male-only prizes.

There is also the fact that the Fay Prize, more than any of the Radcliffe prizes which have been given over to the College, is representative of Radcliffe's past. The Fay Prize is a living reminder that Radcliffe was a women's college throughout most of its history. By continuing to award the Fay Prize to a female undergraduate, the Institute remains contact with its past through students of the present. Because of this tradition, as well as the fact that the prize will be awarded by an Institute with a mission for women--not by a co-ed College--there is a compelling reason to keep the Fay Prize as it is.

At the very least, this justification for the Fay Prize's single-sex status is no more tenuous than the justification for maintaining the Frothingham's prize criteria of "manliness." In fact, by targeting the Fay Prize before deciding to reconsider the Frothingham, the administration revealed an intent colored more by institutional rivalry than gender equality. The Crimson staff's intent, to eliminate sexism everywhere, is more noble, but in this case is clearly misguided.

--Meredith B. Osborn '02