Panel Discusses Activism on Student, Graduate Levels

Harvard's student activists and their alumni mentors gathered last night for a three-hour dinner and panel discussion at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The event, which drew about 50 undergraduates, teaching fellows, and graduate students, was co-sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Standing Committee on Public Service and the Kennedy School's Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organization. The evening featured a panel of experts who gathered to discuss student activism on campus and in postgraduate vocational life.

Moderated by Marshall L. Ganz '64-'92, who teaches political organizing at the Kennedy School, the panel included Leverett Professor of Mathematics Benedict H. Gross '71; Susan C. Eaton '79, a Radcliffe research associate; Kamil E. Redmond '99 and Sewell Chan '98, a former Crimson executive editor.

Professor of Government and of Sociology Theda Skocpol, who chairs the Standing Committee, attended the dinner.

Skocpol said she found points the panel raised concerning the constraints students face in choosing their careers intriguing.

"It was interesting to hear the discussion about...[students] not [being] entirely free."

One of the evening's recurring themes was the pre-professionalism of today's undergraduates compared to the progressive idealism of their counterparts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Panelists each addressed questions about "how to get students to care," "how to weave common threads [among various activist groups]," and "[whether we are] in an activist period right now."

Chan stressed the importance of "harness[ing] the uses of the information age and its technology" in an era of numerous "salient issues" and "unprecedented diversity on campus."

"The challenge is how to engage people critically," Chan said.

Redmond also addressed the issue of campus diversity. During the panel discussion, she expressed concern that the same core group of about "10 students" is responsible for all of the progressive activity on campus today.

Ganz, Eaton and Grass were able to offer retrospective commentary on under-graduate activism.

Eaton remembered coming to Harvard with high hopes for equal interaction between male and female students, only to discover that Harvard men dismissed Radcliffe women as "girls who don't shave their armpits."

Offering words of advice for those assembled, Eaton suggested "marrying an activist if you are an activist" because of the potential for cooperation and mutual learning.

Gross also reminisced about his undergraduate years. He recalled the 1969 student uprising, suggesting that his generation focused on "abstract political issues on which...[they] could have little impact."

Yet Gross concluded that students today, as opposed to those active during his years at the College, are making tangible gains. After hearing from the two undergraduate panelists about public service work underway in the immediate community, from the annual Take Back the Night rally to Project Health, Gross concluded that students are actually changing the world around them.

In the course of sharing their experiences as campus activists, the panelists discovered a striking difference in the concentration choices of today's student activists and their predecessors of 20 to 30 years ago.

Gross pointed out that the radical departments in his undergraduate years were mathematics and philosophy.

Redmond said she has found that most of her activist peers are social studies concentrators. The sociology and women's studies departments also attract a disproportionate number of activists, according to the panel.

Undergraduate attendees of the dinner said they appreciated the opportunity to mingle with students and alumni with similar interests.

"Just the e-mail addresses you get out of something like this make it worth it and give you ideas for the future," said Joelle G. Novey '01.

Jonathan T. Jacoby '99, a student member of the Standing Committee and one of the event's organizers, said he was impressed by the turn-out.

"I think it's wonderful that students and faculty can engage in an informal dialogue that responds to relevant issues," Jacoby said.