Tell Me What You Really Really Want

One month after coming back from a whirlwind nationwide tour soliciting opinion from alumnae, Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson has taken her show on the road at Harvard. Yet while Wilson managed to hit 10 of America's largest cities in her first tour, closer to home she is hitting just three of the 13 dining halls.

It makes sense, of course. If Wilson really cared about what undergraduates thought, she would have started earlier and talked to more students. But this measly three-House compensation swing is indicative of everything at Harvard-Radcliffe, where undergraduate opinion is really valued only in response papers (if there even). With this tour, Wilson can now go and boast to alumni/ae that she has done her homework: she has talked to the students.

Maybe she learned from President Neil L. Rudenstine, who can boast that he talks directly to the students when he has just one office hour a month for all 6,500 of us. Doesn't anyone at this place care? There is one administrator who bothers to visit all 13 dining halls when he wants to know what students think: Harvard Dining Services Executive Chef Michael Miller. If Miller can put that much effort into getting our feedback on steak bombs and popcorn chicken, shouldn't Wilson be doing at least as much for the future of Radcliffe?