In 2002, an investigative effort by The Crimson unearthed a new part of Lowell’s legacy, a “Secret Court” which Lowell convened to try, shame, and expel gay students from the University.

Eugene R. Cummings, a dental school student known in writings of the underground gay scene as “Pope,” was one of the students brought before the Court after the suicide of Cyril E. Wilcox, a student at the college who confessed his homosexuality to his brother before committing suicide. Before the Court, Cummings maintained “absolute denial of any h.s. [homosexual] relations.” The testimony of other students interrogated by this ad-hoc group of judges implicated him in the fledgling gay scene.

Before finding out that he, along with nine other Harvard men, was found “guilty” and was expected to leave Harvard and Cambridge at once, Cummings committed suicide at Harvard’s Stillman Infirmary. He died three weeks before his expected graduation.

Today, Lowell house, named after the instigator of the “Secret Court” to purge homosexuals from Harvard, is the only upperclass house governed by gay housemasters, and the University added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy in 1985 and gender identity in 2006.

Although the University offers support for many medical transition options for transgender students, many members of the LGBTQ community were disappointed at Harvard’s decision to welcome ROTC back to campus last year despite the program’s continued ban on transgender students.

PURGE OF JEWISH STUDENTS

Lowell’s intolerance of Jewish students went hand–in–hand with his anti-gay and anti-black policies. After an admissions policy he championed led to an almost four-fold increase in the number of Jewish students at Harvard, Lowell attempted to institute a quota system, hoping to cap the number of Jews at not over 15 percent.

The quota system was needed, Lowell maintained, because anti-Semitic sentiment on campus “grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews.”

The overt anti-Semitism of Lowell’s quota system was voted down by the board of overseers, but his institution of more subjective aspects of the admissions process—letters of recommendation and interviews—allowed him to weed out Jewish students anyway. The percentage of Jewish freshmen at Harvard dropped drastically, from a high of 27.6 percent in 1925 to below 15 percent in 1933.

WOMEN AND RADCLIFFE

Despite the fact that coeducational colleges had existed in the country for over 50 years by 1879, that was the year that Radcliffe College, Harvard’s sister school, opened its doors to women for the first time. Although students often demonstrated considerable academic prowess, Harvard’s president at the time, Charles W. Eliot, Class of 1853, still questioned “whether the women have the originality and pioneering spirit which will fit them to be leaders.”

Although located just off Harvard Yard, Radcliffe women were not permitted to attend Harvard classes until 1943, when World War II accelerated integration. Beginning in 1963, Radcliffe diplomas were signed by the Presidents of both Harvard and Radcliffe, and, in 1972, the Yard dormitories were opened to women. It wasn’t until 1999, however, the female undergraduates were fully integrated officially into the Harvard community and began receiving Harvard diplomas instead of joint “Harvard-Radcliffe” certificates.

Complete integration on paper failed to end everyday issues, however. In 2005, then-President Lawrence H. Summers came under fire for making comments about women in the sciences that many believed to be sexist. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted “no confidence” in him shortly thereafter. As recently as last year, gender disparities on the Undergraduate Council caused concern about the role of women in leadership positions on campus.

PRESENT DAY

Today, Harvard is tackling one of the last institutionalized barriers to equal access–socioeconomic status.