The Mail VON STADE LETTER

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I was very distressed by the letter from F. Skiddy von Stade to David Smith, dated August 25, 1969, and printed in the CRIMSON this morning (November 6), though I am learning to be less and less surprised by what is said behind our backs. My temptation is to lash out against von Stade personally, but I feel that this must be resisted by all of us, in view of the very frustrating realization that his letter is no more than a candid, Agnew-like expression of the Harvard administration's view of women. Unfortunately, he is not an aberration in the Harvard hierarchy. Although I was amazed by the explicitness of his male chauvinist remarks, I realize that his statements must indeed be similar to those held by the rest of the administration. Obviously, if this university did not want to discriminate against women, it would not maintain its blatantly discriminatory practices on every level: It would not have a 4 to 1 admission ratio in the undergraduate college, and similar (though not so conveniently institutionalized) policies in graduate schools; it would have women on its faculty and in its administration; it would not feel embarrassed to reserve "for men only" such privileges as tickets to football games and use of the athletic facilities.

It is instructive to learn that the impediments to merger are not "simple contractual arrangements"; raher, they are serious and relatively open male supremacist attitudes on the part of the Harvard administration. I ask the Harvard community, in particular the Radcliffe administration, to join in helping to make the Harvard administrators uncomfortable with these attitudes. Even if their minds cannot be changed, they can be forced to restrain themselves. They should not be allowed to enforce discriminatory practices on us.