Unpatriotic Harvard

Patriot's Day is an incredible day in Massachusetts. At dawn, Lexington Common is crowded with spectators for the reenacted approach of the British. After shots are fired and the Redcoats march on to Concord, a parade gives the Americans something to do after enjoying a pancake breakfast. By 10 in the morning, students and businesspeople pour into Fenway Park for a promising game early in the season and then head downtown to cheer on the participants of a certain footrace from Hopkinton into Boston. As the sun sets after a beautiful day, the streets are filled with people, the sound of bands and the sight of an international crowd gathered to celebrate.

When is this triumphant day of spring, the day Massachusetts comes alive? It is the third Monday in April--this year, Monday the 20th. The Red Sox won, the 102nd running of the Boston Marathon brought its traditional crowd and prestige, the area public schools began spring break, businesses observed the state holiday, and numerous college students from Boston University, Wellesley, Tufts and M.I.T. enjoyed the festivities.

And Harvard students, most without a clue as to what they were missing, went to class.

Patriot's Day marks the April 19, 1775, "shots heard round the world" fired at Lexington and Concord. Ready and armed due to the night rides of William Dawes and the poetically more famous Paul Revere, the Minutemen took aim at British soldiers and pushed Boston and the 13 colonies into war.

The start of the successful War of Independence is warmly cheered in Massachusetts and Maine, its former annex, on the third Monday in April, with re-enactments, fairs and a marathon to mark the event. The towns of Lexington and Concord plan their year around Patriot's Day. Even people beyond New England sometimes join in the fun: when Patriot's Day falls on April 15, accountants in New York also cheer, because the federal government allows the taxes of New Yorkers as well as Bay State residents to be filed a day later.

Patriot's Day is an unquestionably meritable, full-fledged holiday. Holiday merit can be an issue in Boston, where Evacuation Day is also on the calendar. Sure, Evacuation Day marks when the English left Boston for good, but something tells me that a dutiful Irish student blessed those Tories when he discovered they had left on March 17, just in time for a shamrock-laden celebration of another British Isle.

Being from California, all of this was once as new to me as it must sound to you. But I was lucky enough to be here for Patriot's Day as a pre-frosh. My father and I took in the sights from the shots in Lexington to the sea of mylar heat blankets that marked the finish line at Copley. My favorite Boston memory is walking to Kenmore Square from Fenway in time to see the camera truck zoom by, inches in front of Moses Tanui, one mile and 385 yards from victory.

Yet nothing seems to be further from the Harvard mind than this April holiday. The students with whom I discussed Patriot's Day either had no idea what I was talking about or were nostalgic for high school when this holiday was observed. Some charged that Harvard, insular as it can be, does not consider itself part of Massachusetts, but that is profoundly untrue. Not only does Harvard appear in the state constitution (exempting itself from taxes, but that is another story), but the University is a proud part of Cambridge, relying on and contributing to the community is ways that, say, Stanford--which is its own municipality--does not. Yet everyone agreed that a day off, especially in April crunch time, would be welcomed with open arms.

Students and administrators alike had no idea why we don't observe Patriot's Day. I spoke with a number of deans to ask why Harvard, unlike practically every university in the state, did not observe the state holiday. They called the question "interesting" and one was "surprised" to find Harvard does not take this chance to celebrate. Some seemed vague on what Patriot's Day even was--maybe they too were asking what Patriot's Day was when they put me on hold.

Such institutional ignorance is unacceptable. Not only would a second holiday be a welcome addition to the long haul of the spring term; it would be celebrating local Harvard history as well.

Harvard has not always been so aloof to the cause of the patriots. Like those of Massachusetts, Harvard's ties to England were stretched thin in the 1770s and by 1775 had snapped. Samuel Eliot Morison '08 recounts in his seminal 1936 work Three Centuries of Harvard how "on April 19... six scholars marched off with the Minutemen" and in a footnote proudly points to the fact that only 16 percent of Harvard graduates were on the rebels' list of Tory sympathizers. The campus itself--which according to President and member of the Class of 1790 Josiah Quincy's bicentennial history had served as the seat of government since 1769--heard of the shots in Lexington, ejected tea-drinking students and prepared to host the first meetings of the Continental Army.

So why does Harvard ignore Patriot's Day? The real answers can be found only in a few places, and depend more on employee rather than client (i.e. student) needs. Director of Communications for the Office of Human Resources Merry D. Touborg explained, "Our holidays are generally based on federal holidays and there are various other holidays celebrated in Massachusetts that don't fall in that category." Touborg noted that "many businesses are open" on Patriot's Day and that by her estimate it is "observed sporadically" in the state.

Yet Touborg admitted "there are no cut-and-dry rules" for University holidays and said, "Honestly, I don't know if it's ever been discussed."

Joe Wrinn, director of the Harvard News Office, added, "Since people come from many states to work here, we have times when we are open on a Boston holiday" for reasons of being consistent. Yet such a theory does not prevent Harvard from observing other local conventions--like Eastern Standard Time.

These reasons are clearly not convincing. This tradition-bound, proud New England institution should join its state and celebrate Patriot's Day, letting students watch their peers in the incredible feat of running a marathon or enjoy spring in Boston if only by sleeping in.

Perhaps all we need to do is ask; the officers I spoke with sounded like they had never faced the question before and had a hint in their voices that this might be an amenable change since, after all, they would be able to celebrate with their families as well.

So, Undergraduate Council and students-at-large, now is the time to ask. Perhaps by next Patriot's Day, we will all have something to celebrate.

Adam I. Arenson '00 is a history and literature concentrator in Lowell House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.