The Mail B-SCHOOL "CONSERVATISM"

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Mr. Samuel Goldhaber's editorial, "B-School Battle" is a most welcome boost to those of us at the "B" School who are sick and tired of being "messed over" by the likes of Carl G. Hokanson.

As the former chairman of the Afro-American Student Union at the "B" School, I am quite familiar with both the attitudes and machinations of Hokanson and his conservative sidekicks who have served as the official non-voice of student body. They seem either unwilling or incapable of providing the leadership which an increasingly activist and even "liberal"-if one can use that word-M. B. A. student faction is demanding. Apparently unwilling to concede that more and more M. B. A. students (especially black and chicano students) are determined to put an end to the Business School's splendid and serene isolation from the larger University community and from larger societal issues in general, the conservative faction of the Student Association is engaged in a gallant- but, in the last analysis-futile effort to maintain the apathy and conservatism which have been the hallmarks of the M. B. A. student body.

Anyone who knows what the traditional role of the SA has been cannot be surprised at Hokanson's actions on the anti-Vietnam petition. The SA's traditional role has been that of a well-dressed social committee, the main function of which was to provide M. B. A. students with noncontroversial entertainment and relief from the rigors of the two-year program. And there are many M. B. A. students who would like the SA to continue to limit its activities to "safe" and certainly non-political endeavors-such as Christmas gala affairs, blood drives, and United Fund drives. What they are finding to their great dismay and discomfort, is that these types of activities are no longer adequate to contain the energies and intellects of a growing liberal contingent. Thus, we have Hokanson frantically calling the press in order to nullify the Constitutional rights of nearly 500 students to freely and publicly express themselves on an abominable war in Vietnam. One cannot help but think that lurking beneath his impolitic and stupid actions was a deep and abiding belief that Business School students-and most especially Harvard Business School students-just aren't supposed to get involved with controversial issues. What all of us witnessed last week was simply the great lengths to which the conservative faction of the SA will go to insure that "B" School students' views on controversial political matters are not seen or at least not in the national press.

Peter Aldrich and the many M. B. A.'s who pulled together the anti-Vietnam petition deserve the praise and support of all students who are disgusted with the status-quo orientation of many members of the SA. In my opinion, which I admit is probably a minority opinion, those students who circulated and signed the anti-Vietnam petition represent the only real hope for the entire American capitalist system. For if they can take a stand on Vietnam, perhaps one day when they are in positions of corporate power and influence they will also speak up unequivocally and act decisively on other controversial issues which are having a profound effect upon American society.

On thing is certain at this point: we haven't heard or seen the last of the conservatives within the SA and the HBS student body. They will undoubtedly continue in their attempts to pull the student body back to the towers of aloofness. One can only hope that we haven't heard or seen the last of the signers of the anti-Vietnam petition, also.