House Committee Turns Its Back When Cliffie Tries to Win a Seat

Creeping coeducation suffered a set back last Friday when Arthur L. Levine '71 was told that he could not run for Leverett House Committee with his Radcliffe girl friend.

"This would be a gimmick, something mirthful in many people's eyes," said Jeffrey Donner '70, chairman of the committee, when asked why he refused to let Levine run with Susan E. Kleinberg '72 of Comstock.

Donner charged that the coed candidacy was just a stunt to help Levine get elected. Levine admitted that he had considered that angle, but added that he felt that a Cliffie would improve the committee.

Levine ran alone in yesterday's election and lost. He said he considered taking Miss Kleinberg to the meetings with him if he had been elected. In the past, the committee has permitted its members to bring guests to meetings.

Levine said that although the candidacy began as a joke, he became serious about it when he realized that it could "put some life into coeducation." He added, "I thought I could encourage Leverett House to become less formal."

The Leverett House Committee constitution effectively forbids coed candidacies by requiring that committee members be formally affiliated with the House. Donner commented, "Had our constitution even allowed it, I would have tried to block it because I think that it's a disturbance to what we're trying to do."

He added that houses are "the last bastion of maleness," and the house committee is possibly "the elite of this bastion." "I'm not antiwoman," Donner emphasized. "I'm just anti-female-participation in our house committee right now. I believe women have a definite place in Harvard University and in the Houses, but the place is not in the house committee and the time is not now."