Delayed Reaction

ON WEDNESDAY APRIL 11, four days after a protest outside the Pi Eta Speakers Club, Dean of the College John B. Fox Jr. '59 issued a condemnation of the club's recently publicized newsletter. Fox said the newsletter "articulates a view of women so offensive that it constitutes a repudiation of some of the College's fundamental values."

On Thursday April 12, President Bok joined Fox's condemnation, releasing a statement "deploring the tone and content of the recent Pi Eta Speakers Club newsletter." Bok went on to comment that "tasteless and grossly insensitive references to groups of people have no place in this or any other civilized community," adding that the newsletter was "totally inconsistent" with the University's commitment to full respect for men and women.

On Tuesday April 17, Radcliffe President released her statement on the Pi Eta Newsletter, calling is "shocking" and an "affront to the human dignity and sensibility of every thoughtful woman and man who understands the nature of a free and humane society." Horner went on to state that the newsletter "generated a serious erosion of confidence and an overwhelming sense of doubt and disillusion about the quality of life and of education possible for women, and men, here."

Which of these facts doesn't fit?

The problem lies with Horner's statement. Her remarks are admirable enough; her strongly-worded statement, which goes farther than that of Bok or Fox in questioning the underlying attitudes suggested by the newsletter, reflects what is clearly a deep and genuine concern for the respect of women and all students. But while the content of the message is admirable, its timing is not. Under considerable pressure in 1977 to merge with Harvard, Radcliffe administrators held out for independent status, claiming that women at Harvard would continue to need an organization committed first and foremost to their needs. Horner, who was instrumental in negotiating the agreement that preserved a Radcliffe College, has consistently maintained that her college continues to serve women students by safeguarding their interests against encroachments, or simple disinterest, of the Harvard administration. Clearly, if Radcliffe is to have any meaning for women students beyond its status as a national center for women's scholarship, it must be as such an advocate for women within the Harvard community.

So it is not a little disappointing that Horner issued not the first, but the last official denunciation of the Pi Eta Club's newsletter, which referred to women as "slobbering bovines" and employed violent sexual imagery. Curious too, in light of Horner's own praise for the strong responses from Bok and Fox, saying such an official response is "reassuring" and "essential for restoring the confidence in the basic civility of this community."

How much more appropriate if Horner herself had been the first to extend such reassurances to those troubled by the newsletter--100 of whom had protested a full 10 days previous. It seems that Horner has ignored her own oft-quoted advice, allowing caution to freeze her into inaction.