Bovine Blues

DURING the Chinese New Year celebration in the Freshman Union about two weeks ago, most of the dining hall workers were wearing straw Chinese-style hats, but both of the checkers had taken them off. They explained, almost sheepishly, to the students passing through that they were supposed to wear the hats, but took them off because they felt silly.

During that dinner, one of the workers told a student she knew that if he thought the straw hats were bad, he should wait until the next week when the workers had to dress as cows and milkmaids for National Dairy Week.

The Union staff drew straws for who had to wear the cow suit, because no one would volunteer, she said. The worker said she wished she could stay out of sight for the next week.

NATIONAL Dairy Week came, and so did the cow.

Imagine yourself as a dining hall worker in the Union during the lunch-hour rush. Class lets out, and hundreds of freshman pour into the building, scrambling for a place in line, crowded together, bumping into one another, talking, shouting.

There you are in a cow suit. A hot, silly-looking cow suit with splotchy fur and an over-sized head. You can't see very well and have to be led around the building by someone calling out, "Kiss the cow! Kiss the cow!" Students had to kiss your nose in order to get a Hershey's chocolate kiss.

In the background you hear cries of derision. You ask yourself, "What type of job is this?"

THE woman in the cow suit did say she volunteered, but only because she considered the milkmaid's bonnet the other servers were forced to wear more embarrassing.

Male employees apparently were not asked to dress specially for the event.

Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle, assistant dean for race relations and minority affairs, accused the Harvard Dining Services of being insensitive to Black students last month. But they are also being insensitive to their workers. The Union employees have a tough job. They deal with 1600 freshmen, who are often rude and even hostile, at every meal. To make them dress up like over-excited kindergarten teachers is the final blow.

Freshmen are not four-year-olds. Contrary to popular belief, cow suits and funny hats don't interest them. All the workers get for their costumes are insults from students. Why make them do it?

Dressing up the Union for holidays and special events is a nice touch, and most students appreciated the candy and frappes during National Dairy Week. But making the workers demean themselves is not fair and does not benefit anyone.

Harvard Dining Services means well, but it is too clumsy to turn intentions into good results. Some Chinese students probably noted that the beef teriyaki served for Chinese New Year is actually a Japanese dish. It's sort of like serving fish & chips on the Fourth of July.

And the sight of workers wearing "coolie" hats--symbols of patronizing attitudes toward Asian-Americans--could also have been taken as insulting.

IN this case, an attempt to create a festive atmosphere in the Union (certainly a difficult task) ended up bursting everyone's ballon. Workers were robbed of their pride, and the misplanned event offended some Asian students.

National Dairy Week also almost worked. Many freshmen enjoyed the better-than-usual food, but Harvard Dining Services insulted the students' and the workers' intelligence with the costumes.

Festivity should not require embarrassment. Consideration for others should be valued more highly than bad bovine jokes.