K-School

To the Editors of the Crimson:

On April 26 you printed a full page article by Carla Williams about the Mason Programme in the Kennedy School titled "Training Tomorrow's Third World Leaders."

The article strikes me as unfortunate on two scores. First, it shows the distortions that can result from anecdotal reporting. There are about fifty Mason Fellows this year. They are a diverse group and can be expected to have a range of reactions to their Harvard experience, including the field trip to Morocco, which was the starting point of the article. Four times in the first two columns, the author made the same point--that some Fellows had questions about the value of the trip. By the time you read it the fourth time, you feel that it must represent a widely held view. From talking with at least a dozen Fellows since their return. I'm convinced that the trip was well planned, well executed and well received. If a reporter depends on anecdote and selective quotes, isn't there some obligation to make sure that the anecdotes and quotes are reasonably representative?

Second, and more basic, the article does eventually raise important questions about course content and program relevance. But by the time you get there, you are so conditioned by a stream of criticisms that the overall image of the reader is bound to be negative. This is too bad. The Mason Program, in formal and informal evaluations, has received consistently high marks over the years. Costs are high and so is quality. The program is an eminent success by the triple criteria of Fellows getting their degrees in individually tailored selection of courses, returning to their countries to a life of public service, and frequently rising to positions of very large responsibility.

I have known the Mason Program for most of its 27 years, both at Harvard and in developing countries of Africa and Asia. It is well conceived, extremely well managed, and consistently praised by its graduates. It is one of Harvard's most successful efforts to involve the University in the concerns of the developing countries. It deserves far better and more balanced reporting than this search for negatives. Richard Hook   Research Associate Harvard Institute for International Development

(Editor's Note. The Crimson stands behind the reporting of the article as run.)