Free Association

IS there now so much activism on Harvard's campus that we should begin to quash new initiatives? Good democracy is based on pluralism. Pluralism means that all those with a common interest should band together and work to achieve their goals.

HUSO should be allowed to succeed or flounder of its own accord. If it lacks student support, it will fail in the free marketplace of ideas.

The Undergraduate Council should be taken more seriously by everyone, but quashing new groups in order to bolster the Council is not the right way to go about it. Any group should be free to pursue a goal more vigorously than the Council chooses to or to dissent loudly from the Council's position.

GROUPS should not avoid speaking out in public simply because uninformed members of the administration, press or public may see them as representative of the student body as a whole. The staff position is that the group should be held responsible for such a misinterpretation. The more sensible conclusion is that those who make the mistake of thinking HUSO represents the student body should be criticized. To conclude otherwise is to endorse self-censorship and discourage open and freewheeling debate.