Facing Harvard's Moral Responsibility

Harvard may soon be nearing a day of reckoning. On Feb. 18, the family of Trang Phuong Ho '96 filed a lawsuit against Harvard University and several members of its advising system. Ho was murdered in May 1995 by Sinedu Tadesse '96, her Dunster House roommate. Tadesse hanged herself in their bathroom the day of the murder. Last summer, Melanie Thernstrom '87, a former Adams House non-resident tutor, enlarged her controversial 1995 New Yorker article and published a book about the incident, charging Harvard with allowing troubled students to fall through the cracks. When the book appeared, the University vigorously denied its assertions. Now Harvard is again on the defensive.

Whether Harvard was legally responsible for the murder is a difficult question that can only be answered in a court of law. Unfortunately for the University, however, no legal maneuvering can release Harvard from its moral responsibility for Trang Ho's death, if not Sinedu Tadesse's suicide.

The administration has mastered the art of calling on their role of "in loco parentis" at all the wrong times and neglecting it at all the right ones. Harvard is proud of a 21-meal dining plan that encourages us to eat, and libraries that close at 1 a.m. to encourage us to sleep. But when it comes to advising and emotional support, we are suddenly treated as independent adults with no need for any kind of help. The week of the murder, Tadesse missed three of her four final exams. Shouldn't a tutor have noticed?

The Dunster murder-suicide is only the most famous example of the University's neglect of its students. Many of us don't even know our adviser's name; most are only dimly aware of the proctor or tutor who lives downstairs. These "advisers" don't make much effort to change the status quo. Instead of a cute quote in a House facebook about how they are "always available to help," tutors must actively seek out their assigned students, meet with them for meals and personally invite them to study breaks.

More importantly, the tutor system requires fundamental reform. The University should hire tutors with applicable interpersonal skills, not just absurdly prolonged graduate school careers. Further, tutors should be given more thorough mental health training than that which they currently receive. Finally, a solution must be found to the dilemma caused when our "official confidante" is also the person writing our professional recommendations.

At best, the lack of a responsible advising system is slightly annoying. At worst, it could fail to prevent another tragedy. Regardless of how Ho's lawsuit turns out, without a better advising system, Harvard fails in its responsibility to its students.