The Spring Ahead: II

This is the second in a two-part preview of Spring 1985 at Harvard Today, the semester in sports, the Faculty, the University, national education issues, and Massachusetts politics.

South Africa Investments

What with Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, and Harvard's United Ministries all recently calling holdings and divest loudly rallying against apartheid the University may be headed for an unusually heavy wave of criticism.

Each Spring for nearly a decade--during the corporate proxy season--students have demonstrated against the University continued investment in companies doing business in South Africa.

President Bok has repeatedly argued that disinvestment would be counterproductive and has insisted that "intensive dialogue" with portfolio companies has more impact on South African work conditions Word is that Bok may finally carry through on this stated investment policy by selling stock in companies which consistently fail to comply with accepted standards for work conditions. It is yet to be seen whether any such move would mollify student and faculty activists and the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility--which last year for the first time advised the Corporation to divest all its South Africa-related holdings.

Students are expected to keep up pressure on the Corporation through demonstrations and by continuing for a third year the Endowment for Divestiture, an alternative to the official Senior Class Gift fund.

Education Aid Cuts

Harvard lobbyists will be busy as bees on Capitol Hill this spring trying to stave off massive education aid cuts proposed this winter by President Reagan.

The cuts--which include eliminating Guaranteed Student Loans for students whose family income is more than $32,500--could, if they are approved, prompt Harvard under extreme conditions to drop its need-blind admissions policy.

Lobbyists and admissions officials say, 'however, that they are confident that most of the Reagan program, which would cut in half the $15 million Harvard students receive yearly, will not be adopted wholesale by Congress. However, Reagan is expected to have greater clout this year than he did in 1981-82 when his proposals to cut student aid were clobbered on the Hill.

In the long term, lobbyists fear that the Higher Education Act, which includes authorization for undergraduate aid programs, may undergo major changes when Congress discusses the bill's reauthorization over the next two years. The current bill expires in October, 1986.

Harvard researchers are also concerned about an ongoing crackdown by the Reagan Administration on the flow of academic information. National Security Directive 84, instituted in March 1983, requires approximately 120,000 federal employees--if they wish to have access to classified information--to sign a agreement by which they will submit for government approval all subsequent speeches and publications.

Harvard officials worry that Directive 84, on the congressional agenda this spring, could hurt the large number of Faculty who have served in government.

The University is also fighting federal restrictions on the publication of research conducted with federal money, and hopes to combat what education lobbyists call an ever greater propensity to classify information.

Grad School Review

After years of attention to developing the Core Curriculum and otherwise examining the academic needs of undergraduates, the Faculty has taken notice of some problems peculiar to the lives of those somewhat more experienced educational consumers--graduate students.

An extensive review of the Graduate School of Arts and Science initiated last summer by new Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, is expected this spring to call for improvements in both the administrative structure of the school and the services provided students.

One focus of concern is the lack of social and academic support currently available to the school's 2300 students, who do not enjoy a House system or even a single place on campus for advising and counseling. Possible solutions include closer ties between grad students and the College through new House affiliate programs supplementing current tutor networks.

Closer CUE Guide Editing

Can you tell the difference between the CUE Guide and the Confi-Guide?

Some professors are apparently having trouble distinguishing between the official course review, published by students in cooperation with Harvard, and The Crimson's annual tongue-in-cheek appraisal of academic fare. The problem, they say, is that the official, survey-based CUE Guide is getting too subjective in its written summaries of what students are reporting in the course-end CUE polls.

The Harvard guide should include more statistics, the critical professors say, allowing undergraduate readers to make more complete conclusions on their own without relying on the writeups. Towards that end, officials are expected this spring to propose a revised set of course surveys, as well as new editorial guidelines for the annual book.

May I Take This Chair?

The plodding machinery of Harvard's appointment process brings several prominent junior faculty members up for review this spring. Limited funds and the low rate of turnover prevents the University from offering permanent positions to all its promising scholars, a problem which has made Harvard a risky starting point for aspiring professors.

Among those scheduled to learn their fates before the end of the year: Associate Professors of Government Stephen T. Holmes and Michael J. Sandel, both political theorists; and Paul E. Starr, the associate professor of Sociology who last year won the Pulitzer Prize for his analysis of the American medical system.

A New Path to an M.D.

Three years after beginning study of how Harvard could better train prospective doctors, Medical School faculty this spring will select the first group of students for an experimental program in medical education, set to start this fall.

Emphasizing computer-aided learning and small group instruction instead of textbook-cramming and large lectures, the Med School's "New Pathway" will be taken by 25 of the 165 students in the next entering class. Educators hope the program will produce compassionate doctors capable of both providing better clinical care and grasping new--and, some charge, dehumanizing--medical technology.

Fewer Honors for Us

Responding in part to the somewhat remarkable statistic that more than 70 percent of undergraduates receive their degrees cum honors, the Faculty is expected to act this spring to make the distinction a bit more distinctive.

Proposed changes in honors requirements, which officials estimate would cause at most a modest reduction in the percentage of eligible seniors, would increase the number of courses counted when grade-point averages are computed, and impose higher minimum standards for certain degrees. Some Faculty members are believed to want more drastic changes designed to take an even larger bite out of the honor group than would the planned amendments, which would first affect freshmen entering next fall.

MATEP

As community activists in Brookline and Mission Hill aim their guns for another series of legal assaults on Harvard's $350-million Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP), the power plant's diesel electric generators are finally coming to life this spring for the first time in years. MATEP, designed to simultaneously produce steam, chilled water and electricity for hospitals in the Medical Area, has proved a costly 14-year headache for the University.

The startup of the diesels means that the 6.4 megawatt MATEP can finally start achieving the energy efficiency for which it was designed. Approval of the diesels came earlier this month when a state agency ruled that while poisonous exhaust from MATEP's stack could give four people lung cancer over the 40-year operating life of the plant, that risk is not unreasonable.

The ruling marked a big win for Harvard, which has held all along that emissions from the Brookline Ave, plant do not pose a severe public health threat. However, MATEP must finish up about three to six months of testing the engines before it can get its final operating permit from the state. Residents of neighboring Brookline and Mission Hill--who have been battling MATEP since 1975--say they will go to Superior Court once more to keep the diesels dead.

Spring Sports

For Harvard's athletic squads, the last two years have been among the finest in recent history. But after what some are expecting this spring, those two seasons might not even merit an Honorable Mention.

That's because a record number of Crimson teams, could send the Varsity Club scrambling to rewrite the record books between now and June. For at least five, and as many as 10 Harvard squads should garner highly coveted Ivy titles, as well as a bevy of Harvard records.

What's more, the national spotlight could shine brighter than ever on the clubs across the Rivah.

Certainly, the one to watch and everyone's midseason bet for Team of the Year is the men's hockey squad Tabbed by many as the best in Coach Bill (leary's tenure and that includes the national runners up of two years ago), the 1985 edition has already clinched a spot in postseason play.

One of only two Ivy teams never to win a men's basketball crown, the Crimson is, at least, a safe bet to garner an NIT postseason bid, if not an NCAA berth.

Lost in the glitter of the history making men's hockey and men's basketball teams are a host of other winter squads that are making room in their own trophy cases.

The best wrestling squad in John Lee's 15 years is currently grappling in the Indoor Athletic Building, and there's a good chance the matmen too might and a way into the national tourney.

The men's swimming team and both the men's and women's squash teams are in usual top notch form, and anything less than three Ivy titles and a few national crowns from these clubs would be a big surprise.

Meanwhile, if the women's ice hockey team can hang on to its league-leading position, it'll snatch its first Ivy crown.

Perhaps the only disappointment of the winter athletic squads will be the women's basketball squad. After their best start in more than seven years, the Crimson's women cagers have faded quickly. Then again, after only three wins last season, this year has already been a smashing success.

When winter turns to spring, the only thing that should change as far as Harvard athletics is concerned is the location of the games.

The Crimson clubs will move outside, but the winning ways should continue. In a big way.

The baseball squad and both the men's and women's crews should gain national attention, while the women's lacrosse team should successfully defend its four straight Ivy titles.

Word has it that the men's lacrosse team will be drastically improved, while the men's and women's tennis teams should make their usual runs at the coveted Ancient Eight crowns.

In addition, the outdoor Heptagonals (for the men's and women's track teams) are slated for Harvard's new multi-million dollar track later this season.

Off the fields, the, Harvard Department of Athletics will turn its attention towards the Indoor Athletic Building, which is slated for renovations. And with a string of eligibility problems having already affected several Crimson athletes this year, Harvard officials say they'll be taking a closer look at the NCAA eligibility rules