You'll Probably Want to Join Some Group; Here's The Full Guide To Organizations

Rarely does any student, even if he craves to be among Phi Beta Kappa's Junior Eight, fail to join one or more undergraduate organizations during his four years here. Most of Harvard's 93 organizations serve simply for the amusement of members and are not competitive or demanding. But there are about two dozen organizations that take themselves seriously--so seriously that leading members must devote most of their time to the organization whether or not they like it.

In these organizations, which are Harvards largest, most prestigious, and most influential, important decisions are made by one person, or a very few people. And nine times out of ten, these people in power joined the organization during their freshman year.

It is at that early stage, when most freshmen have little idea of what an organization is like, and even less of an idea about what they are getting into, that the pattern for their next four years is set. Although these organizations differ widely in interests, they fall into several distinct types which every freshmen should know.

Service Boys

High school student body presidents, often but not necessarily from the Midwest, enjoy serving the University in various roles. It may be as sub-chairman of a Combined Charities drive, or it may be as one of the ushers in Memorial Church, who pray louder, sing louder, and scrub cleaner than anyone except the members of Harvard's two principal service societies.

Crimson Key --The square-jawed, straight-arrow, upright young men who give polished tours of the University are the fortunate ones who have survived the Crimson Key competition. This training period, always in the spring, weeds out anyone who does not know the facts and figures about Harvard landmarks or whose personal appearance does not give outsiders the right impression about Harvard. Besides guiding tours, the Crimson Key greets visiting athletic teams, acts as hosts for prospective students, runs a popular football-weekend bus service between Harvard and Wellesley, and other such matters. Its female counterpart, the Radcliffe Shield, is about the same in membership and in its approach.

Harvard Undergraduate Council--The other high school student body presidents, who shun sporty dress for blue jeans and white socks but who are nevertheless the same old frustrated politicians, comprise the HUC. They usually did not serve on the Freshman Council, because they would have learned about Harvard student government then.

The HUC believes its purpose is "to improve education here by speaking on behalf of the students of Harvard on issues facing the University community." Yet the HUC's only creative role in its short past has been to lobby for longer parietal hours and more interhouse dining with Radcliffe. If parietals were extended each night to midnight, the HUC would go out of business.

HUC members have a tendency to talk incessantly among themselves, and not to others; but largely the HUC problem is its unrepresentative nature. It consists of 22 students, all of whom are elected by House Committees and the Freshman Council rather than directly by the undergraduate body. In other words, someone who has the energy for such things can gather a few dormitory votes, get himself elected to his House Committee, have the House Committee elect him to the HUC, and finally defeat one or two possible rivals for the HUC chairmanship. With this support, he can become "the Harvard student leader" for a year or two, or until his national political fantasies begin to fade.

Activists

Of all the major political organizations at Harvard, only two are worthy of the title "activist." The others are basically self-indulgent and devoid of consistent programs.

Association of African and Afro-American Students--The three-year-old AAAAS began as it pretends to be now: an attempt to unite Negro and African students along lines advocated by international civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and James Foreman. The solidarity was useful to both sides. Africans could mount pressure on the Federal Government about American racial injustices, while American Negroes sought to make the U.S. take a more enlightened view toward Africa.

When Dean Archie Epps and Martin Anochie '64 began AAAAS in 1964, it was very much an African and Afro-American organization. But since Aggrey Awori '65 graduated and left, African participation has fallen off to the extent of becoming only tokenism. The Africans now have very little contact with it, and it is very much an American thing. Properly, the organization's title should now change to the Harvard-Radcliffe Association for Afro-American students.

Despite the tendency away from Pan-Africanism, however, AAAAS serves a valid function. It is an outlet for Harvard and New England Negroes to maintain dignity by identfying as a group and as a private social organization. Currently, some Harvard Negroes are in a tough spot, it being difficult to endorse Black Power right now.

Students for a Democratic Society--SDS has an interesting background at Harvard. Its predecessor, TOCSIN, was vital in the early 1960's at Harvard; it was intellectually oriented and lasted as long as ban-the-bomb was an issue, but the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty wiped out TOCSIN's importance. In 1964, the old TOCSIN remnants and several new groups combined to fill the vacuum for civil rights and peace activities. The TOCSIN tradition was one of sophisticated analysis and objectivity, but in the past year there have been trends both towards more emotionally satisfying tactics of confrontation and towards quiet community organizing.

SDS made headlines last spring when Defense Secretary McNamara emerged from Quincy House to find some 800 demonstrators and onlookers blocking his way. Ultimately McNamara was forced to escape through the Leverett tunnel to the Central Kitchens. Harvard apologized officially for the incident, and so did a substantial part of the student body in a petition, but for SDS it was a major achievement to have confronted one of the chief symbols of the Vietnam War.

Actually, most of SDS's work is done indoors, and is far less dramatic. Regular members have come to expect the same bureaucratic problems that beset Harvard's less radical organizations, and the group's meetings are often long and fruitless.

The real decision-making is accomplished largely within a number of overlapping committees -- sometimes set up to deal with temporary problems -- and by the elected executive board. Although affiliated with national SDS, the Harvard chapter, like its counterparts at most schools, runs its own show. Last year, again like branches across the country, Harvard SDS showed signs of becoming increasingly radical.

The Ten Per Cent

Most students go through Harvard without knowing much about final clubs, and what they do know is usually inaccurate. The 11 clubs, whose combined membership comprise about 10 per cent of the college, vary widely in their attitudes and isolation from the rest of Harvard. Not all, or even a majority of club members, are snobby in the least. And then again, some are the most pompous, close-minded people you'll ever see.

The fact that membership invitations operate on a blackball election system ensures that discrimination will exist (only one club has ever had a Negro member). Anywhere from one to three blackballs (i.e., negative votes) will require a club to reconsider the case for electing a "punchee," and four blackballs definitely seals his fate.

A club of 50 may have 15 or 20 active members on a regular basis. These are the students who look to the club for security, or shelter, or brotherhood, or whatever it is that the College does not seem to provide. They take the final club seriously and center their undergraduate lives around it.

The others, who make occasional use of the building and include a variety of interesting upper middleclass students, usually consider the final club worthwhile despite the dues. The simple truth is, however, that the clubs belong to a different Harvard era, and they are barely changing at a time when the College's student body has changed significantly in just a few years. The clubs must either open up their membership more, or else withdraw further than they are at the present.

There is a maxim that the amount of gambling in a club is an inverse variation to its prestige. The Bat Club is known to be the gambling club, closely challenged by the Iroquois; the D.U. Club the least exclusive (among whites, that is); the A.D. Club and Fly Club good, but containing some ugly rich folk; the Porcellian Club the most prestigious, wealthy, and socially acceptable in Boston; the Spee Club and its Fred Roloff the most interesting and broad, but also sprinkled with dullards; the Owl Club the nest of Eastern preppies and athletes; the Phoenix Club, the Delphic Club, and the Fox Club not worth talking about except over drinks.

Lampoon--Although it is classified as some sort of tax-exempt museum, the Lampoon is as much of a final club as any one of the 11. It is a farce to think of it as anything else. The Poon uses the blackball system for elections, monthly dues are $15, and the Big Fun comes at the Thursday night dinners in the Castle, where the food-throwing might match that of the Three Stooges. Candidates seeking election must endure a hellish "Fool's Week," which in tedium can outdo any small college fraternity.

As a humor magazine, the Lampoon is embarrassing and not even comparable with the ones at Texas or Stanford. The members make a lot of money for their organization by devising clever parodies; their contacts in the publishing world don't hurt either. They are sharp people who answer a need remote to the times. Undoubtedly, the Poonies have a great time, and some of them are among the best, most amusing undergraduates to be found at Harvard. They deserve the right to become a final club and to quit worrying about publishing a quarterly rag sheet.

The Achievers

The most competitive, most introspective, and most productive undergraduate organizations are the Achievers. They have strict, formal hierarchies of power, and often members of these organizations are looking towards a career in a related activity. They take themselves extremely seriously and expect everyone else to do so, also.

Harvard Dramatic Club--In recent year the quality and quantity of House theatrical productions has declined, leaving the huge HarvardS-6Inside the Lampoon