Part of the explanation for students’ ready acceptance of the Pudding is psychological. New neurological evidence suggests that cultural biases stem from the deep subconscious, which, according to a 2007 Princeton study, can process information up to 500,000 times faster than the conscious. Such subtle and uncontrollable bias leads humans to instinctively search for similarity. But college should be about pushing boundaries and exploration, not hiding in the hall of mirrors. This is Harvard, and graduates have proven time and again that they can bend history’s arc.
Harvard’s best excuse for its failure to dissociate from the Pudding is the club’s co-ed status. The HPC indeed successfully circumvents the gender divide associated with Greek life and final clubs. Harvard’s social scene undeniably isolates freshmen, especially given outdated 21-plus US drinking laws. In response, freshmen drink behind closed doors, and it’s easier to do so in exclusive social clubs with their own real estate. Fraternities and sororities, made up of one gender, are limiting, and the co-ed Pudding may seem appealing in contrast. But better, more diverse co-ed options should exist on campus.
The HPC’s issues are also obscured by the merit-driven selection systems of its affiliated performing arts groups, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the Harvard Krokodiloes. But the HPC doesn’t choose members based on performing talent. The club website’s current purposted justification based on “friendship”, “charity night”, and “service days” is ridiculous and hollow. The rudderless HPC falls very short of Harvard’s egalitarian vision of excellence.
It’s sad that a venerated college, one celebrated as a bastion of progressive thought, entrenches archaic socio-economic division. Harvard’s administration should help students to celebrate one another, not facilitate the formation of regional and class-based cliques that belong on the cover of tabloid newspapers, in high school rom-com dramas, or posh Harvard YouTube parodies.
There are three options available to Harvard: Continue association with the HPC and promote elitism and homogeneity; dissociate; or contact and put pressure on the club to catch up with the diversity of this century. President Faust, choose One Harvard united, not a Harvard divided.
Hayden N. Joy ’17, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Leverett House.
CORRECTION: October 15, 2014
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Hasty Pudding Social Club launched its fall member seleciton season two weeks ago . In fact, the season launched three weeks ago.