A Goaded Activist

I know Matthew Joseph's "Spring Fever" was only published to goad campus activist (goading being the subtlest form of controversy the Crimson can handle), and so in a way I hate to play into your hand, but here goes.

Though I can't speak for other campus activists, I can only give Joseph my heartfelt apology that racism, murder, the separation of families and all the bitter harvest of apartheid, bore him, or even put him to sleep. It's ironic that Joseph should charge that "complaints rarely move beyond the whining stage," when he has given us a piece of infantile whining rarely matched even in the Crimson.

I'm not sure if his argument about protesting final clubs and the Hasty Pudding is sincere, but if it is, all I can say is that if Joseph wants to protest them he'll hardly hear complaints from members of SASC about it. Nothing is stopping Joseph from organizing a movement to eliminate final clubs or close the Hasty Pudding if he is so inclines. Perhaps he's just waiting for the weather to warm up.

At a deeper level, no matter how elitist, racist or ideologically unacceptable final clubs are, no one is forced to join one simply by attending Harvard. On the other hand, attending Harvard means paying tuition, and that means supporting the endowment and Harvard's investment stance. That there is no avoiding placing this tacit imprimatur on the investment policy is what motives those who oppose this policy to try to change it. One can passively oppose final clubs by not belonging; there is no way to passively oppose investment policy.

As for student-faculty contact, I think most students, activists and non-activists alike, are all for it. If Joseph would like to start a campaign, he should feel free. Joseph's article is pervaded by the notion that only those who already consider themselves activists set the activist agenda on campus. What a stupid notion! It is not as if casks "inner circle" determines what will and will not be protested on campus this spring. If Joseph or any other student feels as strongly about final clubs or student-faculty contact as divestment activists feel about investment in South Africa, they are certainly more than welcome to express that concern. Diane J. Klein '87