Poll Reveals Conservative Core in Freshman Class

(This is the second in a two-part feature.)

IS THE Admissions Committee playing polities?

The first class admitted to Harvard after what President Pusey called a "dismal year" has been called straight, conservative, and dull. Some charge that a conspiring admissions committee is the culprit, scooping up conservatives and screening out radicals to bring more stable student population to Harvard.

Chase N. Peterson '52, dean of Admissions and Financial Aids, strongly denies any political mancuvering, however, in choosing the class of '73.

"We've a long tradition of tolerating a variety of points of view and encourage them. So we do not make a political analysis and don't intend to," Peterson said.

"We should bring power into this University and the University should have the traditions and respect for civil liberties sufficiently strong to control the occasional and predictable out bursts of any strong bunch of guys," he added.

"We could guarantee safety only with an outrageous pouring in of blandness. We'd have to be going with the blandest of our applicants," he said.

Peterson concluded "the byproduct of diversity happens to be a fair amount of balance. There's a built-in honesty to our diversity."

Strike Discourages Conservatvies

Last Spring, more students turned down Harvard than in any other recent year. Two-hundred fifty-nine students from the admitted class of '73 went elsewhere as opposed to 203 the year before. Although Yale's coeducation is probably part of the explanation, the occupation of University Hall must certainly have given many conservative students second thoughts.

The annual freshman profile gives us only a mixed view of the class's possible polities. While students from lower-class non-radical families have more representation than ever before-and thus might tend to make the overall class less radical-there has been a simultaneous decrease in the number of students from upper class non-radical families, thus maintaining the political balance from previous years.

Statisties for the class of 1973 show that there are more sons of blue-collar workers here than ever before. There are 111 sons of laborer, factory hands, and public workers this year, in contrast to 86 last year.

Where 101 students in the class of 1972 came from families with university professors or administrators asfathers, only 78 such students are in the class of 1973. The same all-time low, dating back at least seven years, can be found for sons of government administrators or diplomats, 47 this year and 61 last year, and for sons of officers in the Armed Forces-13 in the Class of 1972 but only 7 in the Class of 1973.

Definitive Conservative Sentiment

The Class of '73 chalked up a 20 to 25 per cent conservative response on questions ranging from the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities's disciplinary decisions to the University Hall crisis last April.

Freshmen gave the CRR a sizeable vote of confidence with more than 40 per cent endorsing each of its decisions as "just about right" But the conservative contingent revealed 20 per cent calling the CRR decisions "too lax"

The poll showed that 18 per cent of the class agreed with Pusey's decision to call in the police and that 28 per cent would not have supported last April's strike after the University Hall bust.

Freshmen opposed to Pusey's resignation also opposed the strike, 50 to 44 per cent. But even those freshmen opposing Pusey's resignation also opposed, by a two to one margin, his decision to call in the police.

The hard care of conservatism can be found among the five per cent saying they would join YAF, "if asked."

84 Per Cent Have No Ties

The vast majority of freshmen (84 per cent), however, are not members of any campus political organization.

Those who are members of political groups tend to join the traditionally popular and often inactive Young Democrats or Young Republicans. The only active group with a relatively large membership is OBU. All the other active groups have memberships of about one per cent each.

A much larger percentage of freshmen indicated they would join certain political groups, "if asked." While the YDs maintained a lead with 11 per cent, YPSL tallied a surprising 10 per cent and the NAC attracted 9 per cent of the class, with some students expressing interest in both.

Freshmen from the whole range of the political spectrum had a variety of suggestions in response to the open-ended question, "how if at all, should Harvard be improved?"

One student, who indicated he was satisfied, very conservative. and a "WASP (1630)," said, "Students should be made to realize that coming to Harvard is a PRIVILEGE, not a right. They should be made to conform in all respects with the established policy of the University, under penalty of direct and immediate disciplinary action. (i.e. expulsion or two-year suspension.)"

A satisfied liberal said, "Get rid of Gen Ed requirements and Expos. Stop limiting all the good courses."

A dissatisfied radical added, "The basic ill of Harvard is that it promotes competition among its students. Maybe this is to prepare us for the outside world. It should give those who don't want to be prepared a viable alternative."