Getting Ridiculous

IT HAS heavy security. It seeks airtight secrecy. And it's full of powerful people.

No, it's not the Pentagon's strategic war command center. It's Harvard's "Committee to Search for the President." And it's getting ridiculous.

Sure, Harvard needs a president. Sure, the presidency of Harvard is an important job. But as far as we can tell, national security is not at stake. There's no reason for the search committee to sneak around like Manhattan Project scientists.

Some Harvard officials argue that keeping candidates' names secret protects them from embarrassment if they are dropped from consideration. As we have said before, this argument is preposterous. Dartmouth College President James O. Freedman '55 was rejected for the presidency. Wellesley College President Nannerl O. Keohane didn't get the job, either. Neither did Rice University President George E. Rupp. Their reputations have not been destroyed by the snub. They still have managed to hold onto gainful employment.

Yet the committee persists with its ludicrous shenanigans. Candidates have been instructed not to speak to the press. Committee members defer to the committee spokesperson. Purported spokesperson Charles L. Slichter Jr. '45 does not speak to anybody. (Rumor has it he has not spoken to a Harvard undergraduate in 45 years.)

Throughout this academic year, members of the Board of Overseers have been instructed to keep their lips sealed about the search process. During Overseers meetings, 17 Quincy St. turns into a fortress, with the Harvard University Police Department's top officers acting as palace guards.

LAST WEEK, the search committee flexed its muscles by having Crimson reporters unceremoniously ejected from looby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Why? Because the committee was interviewing Neil L. Rudenstine, former provost of Princeton University and a highly respected foundation executive. The reporters had not even attempted to interview anyone. They were just waiting in the lobby.

When Rudenstine emerged from the Ritz-Carlton, the Kremlinesque committee had him shield his face and dive into a limousine like a mobster about to be arraigned.

Maintaining this ridiculous level of secrecy is the best way for the administration to breed a lack of trust. If Rudenstine is named president, his first public act associated with Harvard will have been ducking into a limousine to stay out of the spotlight. Is this the image the University wants to associate with its leader?

THE COMMITTEE'S desperate pursuit of secrecy isolates the committee's actions from public opinion as well as public oversight. Some senior faculty and administrators and powerful alumni have been interviewed at length by the search committee. A handful of students were briefly consulted. But aside from the committee's token requests for input, little has been done to ensure that the committee's choice will please many--or any--of the remaining thousands of Harvard students, staff or faculty. The uninformed are being kept in the dark about the biggest thing to happen to Harvard in 20 years.

What are they hiding, anyway?

Tight-lipped officials holding closed-door meetings with airtight security. Men in dark suits being whisked into waiting limousines. What is this, The Godfather IV?