Aramco Out of the a Business School

THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL has never been noted for acting with great conviction in its dealings with the outside world. Nonetheless, the disclosure last month that Business School professors have been running a training program for Aramco officials demonstrates the lack of any moral responsibility on the part of some faculty members whose world takes them far beyond the academic realm.

Aramco is soon to be nationalized by the Saudi Arabian government. Its hiring policies are clearly discriminatory--one of the primary requisites for employees is proof that they are not Jewish. M. Colyer Crum, associate dean of the Business School who ran the program for Aramco officials, doesn't seem to have been bothered by this. In fact, among the course materials he distributed were sample letters proving the bearer was Christian. Crum disclaims any responsibility for the company's policies; but by accepting them, he in fact acquiesced in the Saudi Arabian government's racism.

The University has never interfered with the outside consulting work of individual faculty members. But Aramco contacted Crum because he is a Harvard faculty member, and Crum uses that position when he deals with the company. There is no room here for people who use their connection to the University to give implicit support to racist policies. Lawrence E. Fouraker, dean of the Business School, made no effort to stop the Aramco program, although his permission was required before the program could take place. He dealt with the request, he said, as he would deal with similar requests from any company. But Aramco is not any company, and to view it as such is to abdicate responsibility for one's actions.

President Bok last spring turned down a request from the Saudi government that Harvard help staff a medical center in Saudi Arabia, on the grounds that every member of the University would not be able to go work there. His decision should be applauded as an appropriate one. But the Harvard community is also made up of private individuals. As long as they refuse to take the kind of position the administration took last spring in their dealings with companies like Aramco, the University will be tainted by their amorality. Value-free social science does not exist in the real world, and those like Crum who profess to practice it are in fact supporting the status quo. In places like Saudi Arabia, this is not only reprehensible but racist. No Harvard affiliate should accept such a position. It embarrasses not only them but the whole community, and should not continue.