COMING CLEAN

After incurring a disproportionate amount of comment, the University has at last condescended to clarify their position with regard to the recent Scrub Woman debacle. Admittedly the affair has received more publicity than its importance would merit, but the fault lies not so much with the newspapers as with the officials in charge of the matter. Either these gentlemen are firm believers in the adage that speech is silver and silence golden or that little boys should be seen and not heard. At all events the motives and intentions in this instance have been distorted far beyond the original design and the explanation makes its appearance too late even to attract attention.

This tempest has arisen not so much from the unfairness of the authorities as their continued failure to appreciate the temper of the press. Circumstances indicate that several faithful employees of the University were being harshly dealt with. Instead of exerting any effort to dispel these impressions, those in charge of press relations defended these actions with a Jovian silence. The public drew conclusions, not particularly clever, but convincingly damning and unpleasant. The result was that the god-like silence have the University very much the appearance of a thoroughly unholy Scrooge.

Publicity of this sort is obviously unhealthy and certainly is to be discouraged. Mismanagement in cases such as these leads to the creation of a public opinion which is detrimental to all who are connected with Harvard. The Scrub Women and their two cents have been lost in the avalanche of criticism so that all that remains of the instance is that Harvard has made a terrible mistake. After the ball is ever a press release makes its appearance, carefully explaining that all is well, and optimistically presupposing that this shaft of illumination will dispel the gloom of several weeks accumulation. The press started the excitement and now the University steps reluctantly into the limelight in an attempt to set matters right, but unfortunately, the melody lingers on.