Integration Without Randomization

The administration's new policy of total randomization seems at least partially, if not primarily, motivated by feelings of distress caused by the disproportionate number of black and Hispanic students that live in the Quad. Through total randomization of the house selection process, Harvard seeks to increase racial integration in the river houses. I am an African-American graduate student and a resident race-relations tutor at Eliot House, and I would certainly like to see more black students in the river houses. However, I don't believe that forced integration, with no attempt to change the underlying circumstances that caused campus housing to become "segregated," is the way to achieve this goal. Instead, the administration should ask black students why they feel the need to live so closely together, and then fashion a policy that would encourage more black students to voluntarily live in the river houses.

I believe that black students seek to live together in the Quad primarily for two reasons: (1) the desire to live in a community that shares their cultural, political and social values, and (2) a feeling of alienation from the University. The first reason is probably easy for everyone to understand, but the second probably is not. Why should black students be alienated from Harvard University? One reason is because we are here at one of the intellectual centers of the world, and as black students, and as people, we are under intellectual attack. From both inside and outside the University, we have been told that some of us are not qualified to be here, because we were admitted by an affirmative action policy that is flawed and unfair. While one tenured Harvard professor tells us that grade inflation exists at the University because most professors don't have the guts to give black students the poor grades that we deserve, another writes that we are intellectually inferior to our white counterparts due to our DNA. I think that anyone would agree that these types of messages can be fairly alienating, if not downright psychologically damaging.

Neither is our presence at the University affirmed by the number of tenured black faculty. For while there are several famous black scholars at Harvard, is it still true that, unless you are an Afro-American studies concentrator, you have a good chance of graduating from the University without ever having been taught by an instructor of your race. Also, recall that in terms of sheer numbers, Black students are under-represented at Harvard. While we are approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, we are only eight percent of the students at Harvard. Is it any wonder then, that at the end of the day, many black students want to be in an environment where they know that there will be no questions about their intelligence, political beliefs, hair, clothes or their very presence at the institution? Sometimes you need an accepting black environment so you can be fortified for the next day's battle. And yes, for black students, as for some white students, Harvard can be a battle.

Randomization may increase any alienation or sense of discomfort that some black students feel by making it impossible for there to be any significantly-sized black community on campus. In this way it makes black students bear the costs of increased integration. After all, all white students will still live in Houses that are predominantly white, while black students will no longer have the option of living in a black community of significant size.

Black students may also receive negative messages from the administration due to randomization. For example, by effectively banning significantly-sized black communities, is the administration telling us that these communities are of no worth? Or will it reinforce the feeling, as discussed in professor Mary Water's essay in the 1995 Race Relations Handbook, that a black student's primary role at Harvard is to be on display for the white students? In other words, is Harvard doing this so that in 20 years from now, white students can boast to their friends that they lived next to a black person in college?

I doubt seriously that this is the motivation behind randomization, but there is probably at least a reasonable doubt about that motivation in the minds of many black students. However, I have no doubt that Harvard has undervalued the worth of black communities to the students that live in them.

So, what should Harvard do instead of forced randomization? Here are some suggestions that might create an atmosphere that would actually result in more black students wanting to live in the river houses.

(1) Demonstrate that integrating the campus is a priority: President Rudenstine should talk to students at a series of forums all over campus.

(2) At first opportunity appoint the first black "master" of a house. (And how about using an alternative term to master? I know I cringe every time I say it.)

(3) Recruit more black resident tutors for the river houses.

(4) Convince black faculty, and administrators, to become actively involved in the river houses.

(5) Give more house seminars at the river houses that will be of interests to black students.

(6) Make it clear to black students that they will not be made to feel uneasy if they sit together in the dining halls of the river houses.

(7) Provide students of color with a Third World Center. Perhaps if students of color know there will be a place where they can gather and discuss issues of particular interest to them, they will be more willing to live apart from one another. I should also note that although this letter refers almost exclusively to black students, I feel that much of what I have said applies to other students of color as well. However, I would feel more comfortable if they spoke for themselves.

(8) If it's too late to call off total randomization for next year, then make it a one-time event.

All of the above suggestions can be instituted quickly and with minimal disruption to the University. Will they work? I don't know. But even if they don't induce more black students to move to the river houses, I think they will make the University a better place.

What will happen if the University does go forward with randomization for more than one year? I doubt there will be any dramatic visible changes in the institution. Those black students who would have preferred to live in the Quad will probably not be as happy here since they are likely to find Harvard less inviting and more stressful. But I don't expect attrition rates among black students to increase significantly, at least I hope not. However, Harvard will have missed a chance to make a meaningful improvement in the lives of its black students and reinforced what most students of all colors seem to already know: instead of the institution making appropriate changes to accommodate students, it requires that students change to accommodate Harvard. --Nicky Sheats   Fifth-year graduate student,   Earth and Planetary Sciences.