Sexual Selection In Academic Life

When Ruth Hubbard '45, professor of Biology, decided to give her Currier House seminar on women and Biology again this year, she probably didn't expect it to become the focus of a college-wide controversy. But when Dean Rosovsky announced last week that the University is investigating the course to determine whether its student selection process violates federal regulations barring discrimination on the basis of sex or race, the dimensions of the controversy became apparent.

The facts appear to be fairly straightforward: at the first meeting of the course, Hubbard asked the 12 students, including three men, whether they wanted to include personal perspectives on the course material (a decision that would eliminate males), or to keep the focus on more impersonal issues. After a two-hour discussion on what students wanted to get from the seminar--a discussion that all participants agreed last week was fair to everyone involved--the three men withdrew their applications to the course. During the class meeting, several women said they would not take the course if men were included; but Steven Martin '78 said last week that "anyone could have said, 'I'm taking this course,' and that would have been it."

Following the men's decision to withdraw, Hubbard offered to help them with independent studies.

Many of the women now enrolled in the course say they believe that only by limiting enrollment to women can the discussion rise above a general introductory level, if for no other reason than that few men at Harvard have strong backgrounds in feminist literature. They maintain that the two courses--the seminar and the independent studies Hubbard offered--could be separate but equal, fulfilling everyone's needs.

The basic thrust of HEW's Title IX, according to Phyllis Keller, the College's affirmative action officer, is equal access to educational facilities--athletics and housing are special cases, she said, and the bill's provision for separatism in those cases cannot be extended to academic studies.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students and the compliance officer for the undergraduate aspect of Title IX, is now conducting a fact-finding investigation into the selection of participants in the course. His final decision on whether it discriminated against men--to be released next week--could have major implications for women's studies at Harvard, and on future efforts by professors to let students take part in determining their studies' direction.