News Item

There is always space for Harvard news in the nation's papers. Not just any Harvard news, though; only things like gold fish swallowing, face slapping, and coke-bottle piling rate publicity. And angry editorials, indignant letters, or both usually follow in the news items wake.

The cross-burning incident was played true to form. After a ten day delay, the story burst out in all the Boston papers, and the wire services spread it far and wide. The nation's Harvard-haters, of which there are many, found a new issue to write about.

There was one difference, however: this time, their spleen was justified. Nevertheless, in their zeal to protest the incident, they have condemned the entire student body, and the adverse publicity has left the public feeling that Harvard undergraduates condone cross-burning as a good joke.

Believing that good publicity is the only means of counteracting bad publicity, three undergraduate organizations have drawn up a pronouncement condemning the cross-burning as "in no way representative of the sentiments of the Harvard student body." The H.L.U., the Society for Minority Rights, and the Education Society will first submit this petition to other student groups in the hope that they will co-sponsor it, then circulate it among undergraduates for signatures.

Some claim that this will only stir up a controversy that has properly died off the news and editorial pages. But whether the story has actually disappeared or not, it has left the public with a distorted picture of the Harvard student body. And a pronouncement such as the three student groups has prepared, combined with a long list of co-sponsors and signatures, is the most effective way possible to answer this distortion.