Groups Question Augusta Members

A coalition of campus women’s groups will draft a petition next month asking top University officials affiliated with the exclusive Augusta National Golf Club to reaffirm their commitment to diversity.

Two members of the Harvard Corporation—treasurer D. Ronald Daniel and Senior Fellow James R. Houghton ’58—as well as former Senior Fellow Robert G. Stone Jr. ’45, belong to the club, which has come under fire in the last year for refusing to admit women.

The petition, led by the Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW), is a response to efforts by the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO) to gain support at Harvard for its campaign to diversify Augusta. NCWO sent two letters in November to Daniel, Houghton and Stone, asking them to explain how membership in Augusta can be reconciled with the University’s nondiscrimination policy.

The Washington-based group also sent copies of the letters to President Lawrence H. Summers, who heads the seven-member Corporation—Harvard’s highest governing body.

Though Stone retired from the Corporation in June, NCWO Chair Martha Burk said the group was unaware of that fact when it sent the letters.

While NCWO argues that Harvard should require Houghton and Daniel to either resign from Augusta or from the Corporation, ABHW board member Kimberly H. Levy ’03 said she and fellow students in ABHW felt the move unnecessary.

“I wasn’t prepared, and neither was the Association, to demand resignation solely on suspicion of future discrimination,” said Levy, a former ABHW president who met with NCWO leaders last weekend to discuss the petition.

“There’s no concrete evidence [Daniel and Houghton] have done anything here on campus to question their commitment to diversity,” she added.Instead, the student groups will ask Daniel and Houghton to issue a statement supporting diversity and affirming that their Augusta membership would not affect their position on gender equity at Harvard.

Daniel could not be reached for comment, but Houghton said in an interview Monday that he would not respond to the NCWO letter and declined comment about diversity at Augusta National.

“This is an issue we’re trying to work through with members on the club,” he said. “It really is a private matter.”

But Burk said the “idea of a private membership is a little bit of a red herring.”

Augusta members, she added, are “the CEOs, they are opinion leaders, they are people who have an obligation to the public interested and that is certainly the case at Harvard.”

Rebeccah G. Watson ’04, vice president of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), said she agreed that membership in the club is not completely private.

“It’s just so obvious that the members of these groups gain so much from their private connections, that a private connection becomes a public issue, because they’re all so powerfully involved in Harvard and other corporations,” she said.

But Alan J. Stone, Harvard’s vice president for government, community and public affairs, called the club memberships “personal matters for the individuals involved” and said that “Harvard has no institutional role with respect to Augusta.” He declined further comment.

Some prominent club members have recently expressed their concerns about the club’s commitment to diversity.

Former CBS head Thomas Wyman resigned his membership in December because of Augusta’s refusal to admit women.

And Citigroup Chair Sanford Weill and U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Lloyd Ward have said they would work within Augusta National to encourage the club to change its policy on women.

Houghton’s brother, Rep. Amory Houghton Jr. ’50, R-N.Y., did respond to an NCWO letter on his membership in the club, but said only the Augusta chair could speak for the organization’s stance on women.

James Houghton, Daniel, Stone and Summers did not respond to NCWO, Burk said.

She said NCWO had received a few dozen complaints from Harvard alumni who were concerned about the link between the Corporation and Augusta.

“We are getting e-mails and calls from Harvard alums who are saying they’re getting solicitation letters to contribute to Harvard and they’re throwing them in the trash because of the memberships,” she said.

One Harvard administration source had received a few alumni e-mails about the memberships, but none that threatened to withdraw donations.

But James Houghton said his longstanding commitment to promoting gender equity shows at both Harvard and Corning, the $3.2 billion international corporation he heads.

“My record on diversity is very clear,” he said. “All you’ve got to do is read anything that’s been printed about Corning.”

Burk, however, said that forcing the Corporation members to resign would make a statement that “this kind of membership is not acceptable in today’s society for those who are in the public eye.”

She said such individuals “have an obligation to the public values of the institutions they’re affiliated with.”

Harvard is at the top of a NCWO web site listing “corporations that sanction sex discrimination.”

According to Burk, the University’s high placement—above such companies as Coors, Coke and Ford—is due to its influential actions in the public arena.

Levy called Augusta’s policies “egregious” and said she was “very disappointed” to see Harvard’s name on the list—www.augustadiscriminates.org.

But she said that she and ABHW had been concerned that a push for resignations would bring undeserved negative publicity to the University.

A statement on diversity by James Houghton and Daniel, she said, would “actually shed positive light on Harvard.”

“We’re not trying to publicly embarrass these board members,” Levy said. “We’re trying to heighten consciousness on campus about these issues.”

Students debated stances on Augusta and its relationship with Harvard over the Black Men’s Forum (BMF) and ABHW e-mail lists this week.

Levy sent an e-mail to the groups on Feb. 12 informing members that she would be meeting with NCWO leaders and asking for their feedback on the petition. She said she determined that “the general consensus was against demanding resignation.”

BMF President Alonzo Sherman ’03 said the group has no official position on Augusta and has no plans to discuss joining the ABHW petition.

RUS, however, will meet with ABHW during the next week and will cosponsor the petition, Watson said.

Although RUS has not discussed whether the Corporation members should resign from Augusta or from Harvard, as NCWO suggests, Watson said she did think the membership “makes Harvard look bad, because they’re not practicing what they preach.”

Latinas Unidas president Judith Vasquez ’03 said her group has not yet discussed the question either, although Levy said ABHW hopes to work with Latinas Unidas on the petition as well.

Levy said the petition will be circulated to undergraduate and graduate students and should be presented to the Corporation members by the end of March.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.