A COMMUNITY OF GOOD WILL

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I have been on "campus" for 14 years. I say campus because during this period, I have worked exclusively for Radcliffe; half for Radcliffe and half for Harvard; one-quarter for Radcliffe and three-quarters for Harvard--serving segments of the entire community--including women undergraduates, men undergraduates, graduate students of both persuasions, faculties and staffs, day care centers, and alumnae programs. I have renovated buildings, designed new program areas, cleared areas for additional programs and managed two major structures. (Many jobs and an assortment of titles for the price of one.) All programs were concerned with "experimental education" and they had a purpose. There have been co-ed skill classes, competitive opportunities and recreational programs--on fields, in buildings, on rivers and at mountains--in athletics. There have been plays during term and in the summer; workshops in the Arts; several disciplines in the Dance with Master Classed by the "greats;" performance as "work in progress" and in full production. There have been money raising ventures, festivals and field days.

The climate of the University, at times, sharply reflected the society of which it is a microcosm--sometimes ahead, sometimes lagging. The single most important "over-view" consideration, then and now, sought to avoid polarization and to capitalize on a "community of purpose." "Something for everyone" is ambitious, but not to be taken lightly. Worth a try? One can recite a veritable litany of negative polarizations which has beset this planet in the last 30 years--Dachau through red-baiting; "flower children" through the movement against the violence of war; the struggle of minorities toward human dignity and now the "war of the sexes" which could be the biggest bag of all since it involves one half the human race vs. the other half. There is no place at this University for decision-making processes which are based on other than facts, reason and good-will. I remain myopic regarding the processes by which politics, fear, ambivalence, and self-serving motives cloud issues, and render decision-making procedures impotent, laborious and prey to error. History, ipso facto, mandates this view. Is it to be ruled out that a University, wherein thinking people have collected to reason together--given ready access to accumulated knowledge--cannot apply that knowledge and overcome the mistakes of the past?

Au courant, we know there is a legitimate preoccupation with money; but money is only a tool and not an end in itself. It should not be allowed to over-ride all other factors, decimate good-will, accomplishment and efficiency. The human factor is at the centre of human experience. Money is ancillary.

Pragmatically, we all have to pay our bills--including the household accounts. A community of purpose and good-will can save time which in itself costa money. Money cannot buy efficiency and achievement, per se. Can we foreshorten the meeting structures; can we extricate ourselves from the slag heap of prejudice, arrogance and indifference? Is there room for innovative and imaginative planning? Can we count on "the inner-directed man" to bail us out--granted his qualification for the job? The "limbo" of merger might find part of its answer when we see all students on their own merits as human beings and not in "a glass darkly" as male-female, racially pinpointed, short, tall-ad infinitum. Our business is students and a nice business it is!

Finally, to allay fear and diffuse emotion regarding Athletics, I propose a predictable and comfortable yardstick in fiscal policy. Participation in and quality of women's athletics is growing throughout the society and the number of undergraduate women is reaching toward a 2.5 to 1 quota under present policy. $120 per capita (for operational and B&G costs) out of each undergraduate women's tuition will not destroy men's programs nor should this prospect panic anyone. The $120 is top dollar for some years to come. Mary G. Paget   Assistant for Radcliffe to the Director of Athletics