Dunster Officials Criticize Reporter

Several Dunster House officials have leveled allegations of professional misconduct against a New Yorker reporter whose story has renewed debate about last year's murder-suicide in Dunster House.

The Harvard officials are accusing Melanie Thernstrom '87 of abusing her affiliation with Harvard and misrepresenting her position as a reporter in an attempt to gather information from Dunster House last year.

While Thernstrom was apparently somewhat unsuccessful in this attempt, her very presence in the house was unethical and in violation of University policy, officials said.

"She came as a reporter and mis-represented herself to be a tutor [to the superintendant] and wanted access to the house office," said Dunster House Master Karel F. Liem, who is also Bigelow professor of ichthyology. "She was admitted because we in good faith believed she was a tutor, but she isn't. So she came in under false pretenses."

Thernstrom denied the allegations and accused Harvard officials of trying to undermine her credibility because of the facts she reported.

"It seems very unfortunate that instead of reflecting on the content of my article which deals with an important and tragic incident Harvard officials are instead attempting to undermine the journalist with false allegations," she said in a statement early this morning.

Thernstrom's New Yorker story, first released last week, criticizes Harvard for not responding adequately to signals that Sinedu Tadesse '96, perpetrator of the murder-suicide, was overwhelmed by loneliness and depression.

As part of her reporting for this story, Thernstrom visited Dunster House soon after the May 28, 1995 incident.

Extra security guards were posted at the entrance to Dunster House for at least 10 days after the May 28 murder-suicide, according to Liem and Assistant to the Dunster Masters Carol Finn. Kerry that we should invade the Social Security trust fund," Weld said.

Kerry, meanwhile, stressed his support for Social Security but admitted it was in desperate need of reform.

"Everyone who is honest about this knows that in the year 2015 or 2020 [Social Security] won't work," Kerry said.

The candidates also discussed the size of government and the effectiveness of affirmative action hiring policies