Graduates Protest Greenspan Speech

After a year punctuated by Yard rallies and protests at Massachusetts Hall, student activists staged a final event for the year--what they called a "Counter-Commencement."

Students involved in campus activist groups such as the Living Wage Campaign and the Coalition Against Violence organized a walk-out and rally that took place during Commencement Day exercises. The event was intended as a protest of Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan's economic policies and his selection as Commencement speaker.

Ten minutes into Greenspan's speech, audience members carrying huge red balloons began to file silently out of Tercentary Theater. The crowd included over 100 undergraduates, parents, graduate students and seniors still decked out in caps and gowns.

They proceeded out of the Yard and across the street to Holyoke Center, where they gathered outside of the Cambridge Saving Bank.

"This is not an act of disrespect," said Maggie L Schmitt '99. "This is more of a celebration of what Harvard should be about."

Daniel R. Morgan '99, a member of the Living Wage Campaign, took the makeshift stage to explain the purpose of the event.

"One of the main reasons we're out here is we're protesting against the model of leadership Greenspan represents," he said, wearing a mortarboard inscribed with the words "I-bank, therefore I am?"

Morgan called the selection of Greenspan as speaker "a slap in the face for everyone. It's an insult to everyone here because this is what Harvard thinks is a model Commencement Address speaker."

"Harvard is not accepting the status quo," he said. "Harvard is about being a moral leader for the country. We are not going to let this stand unchallenged."

Rosslyn Wuchinich `99 thanked the protestors for supporting the cause before introducing the featured speaker, Juliet B. Schor, senior lecturer on Women's Studies and acting chair of that department. The rally organizers had also approached Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74 and Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith to speak at the event, but neither was able to attend.

Schor praised groups like the Living Wage Campaign and the Progressive Student Labor Movement for starting a reemergence of student activism on campus.

"I am confident that...they will continue the tradition of staying involved," she said, asking students to remain involved even when classes are not in session.

"I think the old story of students scattering in the spring and starting at ground zero in the fall is something administrators have come to rely on."

Schor then turned her focus to Greenspan's policies and and economic ideals.

"The top one percent of the population have raised their share of wealth 40 percent . The average C.E.O. earned 326 times the wage of the agerage factory worker," she said.

"We're standing against the logic of Wall Street," she declared. "We're standing against the assumption that what's good for the stock market is good for the country."

"Mr. Greenspan, we've had enough," Schor concluded.

Others took the mike to speak out against Greenspan as well. Helen Newman '99 said students should more actively question and criticize Greenspan "manipulation" of the economy.

But some of the spectators were angry at what they saw as disrespect of the Commencement speaker and of Harvard.

"[Greenspan] gave a very good speech on honesty and integrity and for [the counter-commencement speakers] to stand up and denounce his is not appropriate," said one 1964 alumnus who witnessed both events.

Nonetheless, rally organizers said they considered the event a fitting end to their undergraduates years of activism.

"It was one of the most moving sights I've seen here in my four years now," Morgan said of the sight of students exiting the Yard. "This is our Commencement, not Harvard's Commencement," he said.