Article Unfair

As co-chairs of the Academics Committee of the Undergraduate Council, we are writing in response to the poor story Daniel Steinman wrote about the Concentration Fair. Instead of focusing on the positive aspects of the Fair, Mr. Steinman opted to slant the facts in such a manner as to support the Crimson agenda of deriding nearly every event that the Council undertakes.

Every FAS department in the fields of concentration handbook was invited to the event, and they then were asked to notify us of their intent to participate. Consequently, all of the departments which had tables set up for them, except for Biochemical Sciences who notified us on the day of the Fair of their inability to participate, were supposed to attend the event.

As to the point about the absence of certain departments at the Concentration Fair, the Academics Committee is free from any blame. All members of my committee, in particular Peter Cahn '96, Susan Lee '96, Hassen Sayeed '96 and Allison Weinberg '96, began planning this event in early November and we took every step to ensure that this event would be a success, as is the opinion of the majority of students and departments who availed themselves of the event.

However, some departments such as English and Economics decided that they didn't need to attend although they had said they would. Around 12:30 on the day of the Fair, Peter Cahn himself called all departments who hadn't yet sent representatives but had declared their intent to attend. Officials in the English department amazingly stated that we had never notified them of the event; however, we deem this statement to be more than questionable for in fact not only had representatives from the department told us they were going to attend, but also they affirmed their former intent to participate in subsequent follow up calls by members of the Academics Committee. Also, we have on file the letter that we sent to their department inviting them to attend since the department has even asserted that we in fact never contacted them at all about the event.

Furthermore, the Economics department told Peter that they would send a representative after Ec 10 had let out for the day. My committee also finds fault with this statement by the department for the very reason that Ec 10 does not meet on Thursdays. Furthermore, in a feeble attempt to appease us, the department sent a TF to the fair, who remained present for only 30 minutes.

The insinuations from the organization of Mr. Steinman's story were that the fair was poorly attended and not very useful to students. I would counter these innuendoes by simply stating that many students commented to us that the event aided them in their efforts at choosing a concentration, and one student even commented that the event made her somewhat more confused in deciding on a concentration because she did not realize that Harvard had so many concentrations from which to choose.

One last point we would like to make is that some representatives of certain concentrations did leave early, but the number doing this was not near the figure of 20 which Steinman implied in his article. We can say this with more accuracy because we remained at the Fair throughout the duration of the event, whereas Steinman made an assessment from a cursory examination of those present from the brief period of time that he spent at the fair. Again in this matter, the Academics Committee is not to be blamed for this because each department participating knew that the event lasted for 6 hours and was asked to have someone, present for its entirety.

This year's Concentration Fair was a tremendous success because our goals for the even were met: first-year members of the Academics Committee had the major role in the organizational process, many concentrations attended, the event was well publicized, and many more first-year students attended than last year. It is unfair for your publication to negate the success of this useful student service and all the labor of our committee members in organizing the Fair by means of one misleading story.

Finally, we suggest that all insinuations of poor planning be directed to the few departments who reneged on their promises to participate. In the future, we recommend to the editors of this publication that they instruct their writers in obtaining all the facts before they print a story. Brandon C. Gregoire '95   Sean M. Becker '94   Co-Chairs of the Academics Committee