I sat on a University committee this fall to discuss Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) dissemination of crime information to the public. In meetings, administrators consistently argued that the community just needed to trust them to make the right decisions. After one of the meetings, a graduate student mentioned to HUPD Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley that there had been several allegations of racial profiling by HUPD officers.

You don’t have to worry about those complaints, Riley told him. We looked into them ourselves.

Needless to say, the graduate student and I were no less worried. When armed police officers are accused of racial profiling, the public deserves to know about the allegations—especially since in the past decade there have been lawsuits against HUPD charging both racial and sex discrimination.

Unfortunately, Harvard has only become more secretive since Lawrence H. Summers was appointed University president. The faculty has complained about a total lack of transparency regarding the development of Allston. Staff protest the information blackout concerning budget shortfalls and layoffs. And the proliferation of spokespeople-cum-spin-doctors has made it impossible for reporters from The Crimson to properly cover even the most benign topics.

A culture of secrecy is as troubling at Harvard as it is in government. It’s ironic that the same Harvard administrators and lawyers who believe in accountability and openness in government reject those principles when it comes to the University.

Harvard has loudly criticized the Patriot Act and the “culture of secrecy” that Kevin Casey, Harvard’s senior director of federal and state relations, has said it promotes. Dean of the School of Public Health Barry R. Bloom has also been critical of the legislation and the way it curbs the dissemination of some scientific information. He has said, “The greatest threat is putting restrictions on knowledge.”

Harvard can’t advocate for a free exchange of ideas when it concerns academic research and inquiry but then promote a culture of secrecy when it comes to the administration of the University—this culture of secrecy runs contrary to Harvard’s most basic values.

Summers said in 2001: “This University is, above all, founded on a core conviction that ideas, their development, and their transmission are what is ultimately most important.”

I hope Harvard will one day be as committed to openness and transparency in its administration as it is in its research and classrooms.

Amit R. Paley ’04, a social studies and East Asian studies concentrator in Lowell House, was president of The Crimson in 2003.