Race Summit Yields Dialogue, Challenge

President Neil L. Rudenstine convened a race-relations summit meeting Friday and challenged Black and Jewish student leaders to develop proposals to improve on campus.

Black and Jewish undergraduates shared their thoughts on the recent tensions during the unprecedented meeting, which lasted more than two hours.

Several high level administrators, including Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science Jeremy R. Knowles, participated. Rudenstine and Knowles have never before met together with students to discuss race relations.

"It was very good. That doesn't mean that everybody understood everything or had a solution to everything, but it seems to me that the exchange was very frank," said Rudenstine, who led the meeting. "Nobody ever raised their voice, and it was very thoughtful and probing," he said.

Black Students Association (BSA) President Zaheer R. Ali '94 said the bulk of the meeting consisted of students discussing their experiences in the past year, especially the last semester. "There was an attempt to try to understand where the other person was coming from," Ali said.

"The level of honesty was really impressive," said Hillel Coordinating Council Chair Shai A. Held'94. Held said the meeting consisted mostly of "a long discussion of the various issues that have been the cause of tensions."

That discussion covered topics including speakers that the BSA has invited and the sensitivity of Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations Director S. Allen Counter. Counter was at the meeting, along with Dean of Student Archie C. Epps III, acting Hillel Director Rabbi Sally Finestone and University Secretary Michael W. Roberts.

"Clearly there are differences of perception," Held said. "I was more struck by the eagerness to hear the other side."

In addition to starting a dialogue, the meeting was a move toward solutions. "What came out of it was challenge from President Rudenstine to come up with a structured program to try to facilitate better relations," Ali said.

Held and BSA both plan to write letters to Knowles with suggestions for such programs.Rudenstine urged anyone with ideas for structuresto improve campus intercultural and race relationsto write a letter to Knowles.

Bringing students together for a conferencebefore school starts in the fall was one proposalraised by the president at the meeting. Studentswho were at the meeting said the proposal was onlymentioned briefly and vaguely, however.

In an interview Friday, Rudenstine elaboratedon some proposals under consideration. He said thegroup of students who met before school startedmight continue to meet throughout the year.

In the interview, the president also suggesteda series of smaller working groups to deal withspecific issues, such as relations betweenminority groups and the Harvard police. He alsosaid he wants to get faculty involved in dealingwith diversity.

Rudenstine said it was important to begin"regularizing and normalizing and not just dealingwith crises."

"I think there was a fair amount of consensusthat some of the these things make sense,"Rudenstine said, adding that the ideas are subjectto testing and revision.

Other efforts to ease recent racial andinter-ethnic tension in the College continue.

Also Friday, the General Counsel's Office metto review First Amendment issues on campus.Questions about hate speech came to the forefrontwith a recent Peninsula poster, which wascondemned by several College deans and widelyconsidered racist.

Several undergraduate houses have held meetingsto discuss recent racial tensions and riots in LosAngeles after Knowles wrote a letter to housemasters recommending such steps.

A meeting between The Crimson and BSA isscheduled for next week, and Ali and Held plan tomeet again soon.

But Rudenstine said no one should expect anyquick and easy answers to the question of how toget along. "I don't think that anybody ispretending that this is an issue you solve. Imean, this is the world we live in," he said.

Still, the president said progress in possible:"The fact that it's Harvard means that we havevery good shot at mediating it in a very human way...we have to think of this as a jointly managedhuman process that will continue.

Bringing students together for a conferencebefore school starts in the fall was one proposalraised by the president at the meeting. Studentswho were at the meeting said the proposal was onlymentioned briefly and vaguely, however.

In an interview Friday, Rudenstine elaboratedon some proposals under consideration. He said thegroup of students who met before school startedmight continue to meet throughout the year.

In the interview, the president also suggesteda series of smaller working groups to deal withspecific issues, such as relations betweenminority groups and the Harvard police. He alsosaid he wants to get faculty involved in dealingwith diversity.

Rudenstine said it was important to begin"regularizing and normalizing and not just dealingwith crises."

"I think there was a fair amount of consensusthat some of the these things make sense,"Rudenstine said, adding that the ideas are subjectto testing and revision.

Other efforts to ease recent racial andinter-ethnic tension in the College continue.

Also Friday, the General Counsel's Office metto review First Amendment issues on campus.Questions about hate speech came to the forefrontwith a recent Peninsula poster, which wascondemned by several College deans and widelyconsidered racist.

Several undergraduate houses have held meetingsto discuss recent racial tensions and riots in LosAngeles after Knowles wrote a letter to housemasters recommending such steps.

A meeting between The Crimson and BSA isscheduled for next week, and Ali and Held plan tomeet again soon.

But Rudenstine said no one should expect anyquick and easy answers to the question of how toget along. "I don't think that anybody ispretending that this is an issue you solve. Imean, this is the world we live in," he said.

Still, the president said progress in possible:"The fact that it's Harvard means that we havevery good shot at mediating it in a very human way...we have to think of this as a jointly managedhuman process that will continue.