Defending Radcliffe
To the editors:
Carey E. Schwaber ’01 writes in her letter (Letters, April 16) that “institutional inertia” seems to be the only reason Radcliffe continues to exist as a part of Harvard University. While Radcliffe’s role as a “college” was definitely somewhat ambiguous in the two decades before the 1999 merger, Radcliffe’s presence in its current form is more than justified.
A primary objective of Drew Gilpin Faust, newly appointed dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will be to increase the number of tenured women professors at Harvard, where the gender make-up of the faculty stands at an embarrassing and antiquated ratio of six male professors to every female professor. Dean Faust plans to accomplish this by giving qualified female scholars access to Radcliffe’s resources and research programs, which will in turn allow them to gain tenured positions in an institution apparently unconcerned with its faculty’s gender imbalance.
Under the terms of the merger, Dean Faust will also sit alongside the deans of the college, law, medical and business schools on the University Board of Deans. As the first head of Radcliffe to gain membership to the board, Faust will also be the first female representative of any Harvard “tub” to serve. Dean Faust’s unprecedented role within the University, coupled with her desire and ability to improve the position of female faculty at Harvard, will only enhance Radcliffe’s capacity to fight against the “institutional inertia” Schwaber so strongly opposes.
Nathan Burstein ’04
April 17, 2001
The writer is a student caller for the Radcliffe Annual Fund Phone-a-thon.
Armchair Bravery
To the editors:
Ross G. Douthat ’02 is a good guy whose columns I have enjoyed on many occasions. Nevertheless, I find it amusing that Douthat, who has probably never been exposed to danger a single time in his life, sees fit to fault the Bush administration for its “zero casualty” logic in his column “Appeasing the Chinese” (Opinion, April 16). Apparently, George W. Bush is a coward for having the patience and humility to bring our boys back home safely with relatively little damage to Sino-American relations. Ross, on the other hand, is more than willing to expend other people’s lives to show those uppity Chinese who’s their daddy. If only the reigns of power were held by someone as brave as this Crimson columnist, then those Chinese wouldn’t be so cocky!
Stepehn R. Piraino ’02
April 17, 2001
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