PBHA Should Have Removed Nero

First it was the Undergraduate Council. Then it was Evening with Champions. Now the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) is embroiled in a scandal of its own.

PBHA secretary Harvetta E. Nero '96 faced removal last Thursday for alleged violations of the association's vehicles policy over the summer. The PBHA cabinet voted 56-21, with nine abstentions, not to remove Nero from her position. In a four-hour meeting, the cabinet fiddled; Harvetta failed to get burned.

This decision is deeply disturbing. We believe that Nero deserves to be removed for her improper actions, all three of which point to irresponsibility and a lack of clear thinking.

At a meeting this August, the PBHA board charged Nero with driving a PBHA van while uninsured, authorizing an uncertified driver to transport PBHA campers, and changing the association's policy on insurance deductibles without authorization. Nero, meanwhile, maintains that she was merely a scapegoat for countless vehicular indiscretions on the part of other PBHA drivers.

This assertion is dubious. During the month of July, Nero was involved in three driving accidents in three consecutive days while driving PBHA vans. Although Nero asserts that the first two accidents were not her fault, her argument is weakened by the fact that the third accident occurred when she made an illegal U-turn and hit an off-duty police officer. In light of all this, PBHA staff hardly had any choice but to revoke Nero's driving privileges.

As if this weren't bad enough, Nero defied the revocation on July 16, when she drove a van without permission to obtain first-aid kits for a planned program sleepover, hardly the life-threatening situation stipulated. Finally, Nero allegedly authorized an uncertified counselor to drive a PBHA van and blatantly disregarded PBHA's insurance policy.

Nero's actions have put PBHA's vans in jeopardy, as Harvard has threatened not to renew insurance coverage unless action is taken against Nero. And without those vans, many of the activities of PBHA's 51 committees would be severely limited.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the decision not to remove Nero is the rationale behind it. Nero herself defended her position with the excuse that countless other PBHA drivers have violated vehicles policy, including PBHA President John B. King '95.

Such accusations are alarming and should not serve to exonerate Nero. On the contrary, if true, they make painfully clear that there should be stricter supervision over PBHA's vehicle policy.

"There are rules for driving the autos," Annemarie Thomas, director of the University's insurance program, told the PBHA cabinet Thursday night. "The reason that we're developing the rules is because we're concerned about the safety of children."

But it appears that PBHA council members have other concerns on their minds. The Thursday-night meeting allegedly degenerated into personal attacks between board members who seemed more intent on exposing each other's vehicular violations than dealing with Nero's clearly improper conduct.

In the end, very little was resolved. Nero was not removed and an association with a previously unblemished record now just looks like it is run by a bunch of squabbling children.

PBHA's refusal to impeach Nero is a sad commentary on its own responsibility and ethics. They did ultimately vote to enact a new vehicle policy which would decertify any drivers found at fault in an accident while driving a PBHA van since last January. Ironically, the list of the decertified includes four members of the Associated Board of Directors, including Nero and Vehicles Coordinator Gene Koo '97.

While the policy is a step in the right direction, ultimately it is not enough. Prior to Harvettagate, PBHA was one of the few organizations left on campus with a virtually unblemished reputation. PBHA's leaders missed their opportunity to clear the organization's name when they refused to remove Nero.

Their action--or lack of it--speaks for itself.