Alumni simply aren't bending over backwards--or even turning their heads--to seek and employ qualified, hard-working Harvard graduates anymore. And it's because the Class of 1951, returning in June to celebrate its 50th-year reunion, probably feels as comfortable associating with this year's graduating class as it would attending a DMX concert. Networking necessitates a degree of identification between the donor and the beneficiary which, admittedly for the better, no longer exists at the College.

And so we resign ourselves to the fact that however many alumni are still kicking today, they don't really give a damn about us at the College anymore. But assuming that Harvard not only retains but develops its diversity, attracts a few more minorities and entices more than just a handful of international students, hopefully that will become the obvious status quo. And, thank God, the robust Old Boys' networking of yesteryear will resurrect itself--in p.c. form, of course.

Jordana R. Lewis '02 is a history and literature concentrator in Eliot House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.