Has the Foundation Gone Far Enough?

When the Harvard Foundation was created in 1981 to improve race relations at the University, student organizations boycotted it as an inadequate substitute for a Third World Center. Five years later, the boycott is hardly remembered by most students. In fact, when the Foundation last week announced its 25 fall term grants, which total $9240, all of the major minority groups on campus were among the recipients.

But despite the Foundation's now-established status and apparent acceptance by student groups at Harvard, some of the same debate which surrounded the Foundation at its inception exists today. And most minority students still say the Foundation fails to meet their needs.

Minority students fault the Foundation for not supporting a Third World Center, a facility with office and common space for student groups and guests; for not hiring a full time director; and for restrictive funding criteria which inhibit their endeavors.

"The Harvard Foundation is basically just a grant-giving institution which does not unite minority students," says Shannah Braxton, co-chairman of the Black Student Association (BSA). Braxton likens the Foundation to the Undergraduate Council and the Radcliffe Union of Students.

Other minority students echo Braxton's criticism and say the Foundation's presence is not sufficiently felt at Harvard. "I think a lot of people don't even know what the Harvard Foundation does...aside from giving out grants for speakers and cultural shows," says BSA member Leah Johnson '87.

In the spring of 1985, a faculty committee headed by Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, completed a four-year review of the Foundation. That committee published a host of recommendations--calling for a full-time director, increased student and faculty input, and more adequate space for minority student groups, among them--and aimed at increasing the Foundation's presence.

Whether the Foundation has adequately acted upon the recommendations in the Eck report is a matter of disagreement.

Dr. S. Allen Counter, part-time director of the Foundation throughout its existence, refused to talk to The Crimson, despite repeated attempts to arrange an interview. Counter is also an assistant professor of neurology at the Medical School.

Significant changes were enacted at the Foundation last spring, according to Arnold Professor of Science William H. Bossert '59, acting chairman of the Foundation since Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes relinquished his five-year chairmanship last June. "We have a real agenda; we're meeting, and for the first time, we are directing the director," says Bossert, referring to a recently formed steering committee comprised of an equal number of faculty and students.

Bossert, who admits that he is "troubled" that "Harvard would have as the chairman of a race relations foundation a white, Protestant professor with a Southern accent," describes the Foundation's early years as "amorphous."

But he says that students and faculty at the Foundation are working together on an expanded agenda, beyond merely approving grants and scheduling guest speakers. Bossert says the steering committee's top three priorities this year are securing an endowment for the Foundation, establishing procedures for dealing with racial harassment at Harvard and increasing the breadth of student representation at the Foundation.

"By the end of this year, we will have done most everything recommended by the Eck report, including getting funds started," Bossert says.

But many students close to the Foundation are far less sanguine. Judy Shen '88, chairman of the Foundation's student advisory council and a member of the Asian American Association, says the Foundation has definitely not reached its potential. Shen does, however, acknowledge an increase in regular input from both students and faculty since last year.

Third World Center

Shen and others are quick to point out minority students' demands for a Third World Center, a perennial sore point in relations between the Harvard administration and students. The Foundation was created in response to this demand, and its original charter does speak of a "Junior Common Room space" for minority student organizations. Last year's Eck Report acknowledges the problem of space for minority groups, "urg(ing) the University to consider ways in which this concern might be met."

Nevertheless, the space issue is still not a priority for the Foundation, according to Bossert, who says the problem is not exclusively a minority student one, but college-wide. Gomes agrees with Bossert and cites the "benign neglect" of three past Afro-American centers at Harvard. But the idea for a center is still "viable," Gomes says.

"If Lowell Lecture Hall was offered to the Harvard Foundation with money, I think we'd be foolish not to take it," says Gomes, adding that he might rejoin the Foundation if it acquired such a facility. Nevertheless, "the lack of readily available space does not seem to have inhibited the vitality of minority life," says Gomes, who chaired the committee that created the Foundation in January 1981.

But many students interviewed disagree, some vehemently, and say there is an urgent need for a centrally-located facility for minority students to meet, socialize and display their cultural heritage.

Some students say that need is highlighted by the virtual breakup last year of the Third World Student Alliance (TWSA), a loosely formed umbrella group of Harvard's largest minority groups. The breakup was precipitated by internal disagreement about a TWSA report published last semester.

And students inevitably point to Third World centers, or similar facilities, which exist at many universities, including five Ivy League schools. Last week, Brown University inaugurated a new Third World center, moving it from a basement to an entire building.

"There really is no way for Third World students groups on campus to get together to pursue common themes and let the rest of Harvard know what the minority community is about," says Richard Zayas '88, treasuer of the Puerto Rican student group La O.

"Harvard makes it all but inevitable for us to confine our activities to Black students," says the BSA's Braxton. To reach the entire Harvard community during Black History month, the BSA currently puts displays in the basement of Lamont Library, according to Braxton. "You pass Alex Haley and Malcom X on the way to the bathroom," says Braxton, adding that the alternative--putting displays in each of the houses--is impractical.

The absence of a Third World Center at Harvard may explain why many Blacks cluster together for meals, according to BSA member Leah Johnson '87. "There are a lot of Jewish students in my house, but they don't all sit together at meals. They know they have one place to go for fellowship," says Johnson, referring to Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel, which she likens to a Third World Center.

"I think most organizations have given up on Harvard and have turned to their own members and alumni for support of a center...similar to a Hillel situation," says Braxton. But Zayas says the minority alumni base at Harvard is relatively small and young, which diminishes the prospects for a privately funded minority center.

"I don't think we as students can carry the burden for initiating and carrying through projects," Zayas says.

Currently, the Foundation awards grants to students and groups every semester, despite the Eck report's recommendation that the Foundation consider "development grants" which foster "long range planning." And both Bossert and Gomes say the Foundation has no intention of funding projects on an ongoing basis.

Although some organizations repeatedly apply for and receive grants from the Foundation, minority group leaders fault the Foundation for not funding longer-term projects and say their organizations face an uncertain financial status each semester.

"You can't hope to achieve good intercultural relations by short term projects. You change attitudes over the long run," says Zayas, who further criticizes the Foundation's inadequate facilities and staffing.

Part-Time Race Relations

The absence of a full-time director at the Foundation implies that at Harvard, race relations is a "part-time job," says Zayas, who describes the Foundation's office in University Hall as "a walk-in closet, three feet wide by 20 feet long."

"Just as we would not have a part-time dean of the College, the Harvard Foundation should not have a part-time director," says Shen, stating that Harvard does not adequately support the Foundation. Zayas agrees, adding that no single institution can deal with the problems minority students face, including a Third World Center.

"The Harvard Foundation just scratches the surface" of minority students' concerns, says Allysunn Walker '86-'87, a member of the BSA and Kuumba Singers. Walker says administrators are wrong to think the Foundation adequately addresses minority students' needs.

The Foundation's stated goals are overly ambitious, which may explain many students' disillusionment with the Foundation, according to the BSA's Braxton, who concurs with Walker. "Dr. Counter works extremely well within the confined structure in which he finds himself. But the Harvard Foundation is all too restrictive to serve the needs of the ethnic groups on campus," says Braxton.

Others, like Rosa Rios '87, a member of the Chicano student group RAZA, offer a more positive assessment of the Foundation and say the Foundation's progress in improving race relations in a relatively short time is often overlooked. "We should feel lucky that we have an organization like the Foundation here, because it is only recently that minorities have had exposure at Harvard," Rios says.

Interracial communication has improved, and the alienation felt by minority students has decreased in the last five years, according to Gomes, who adds that change is historically slow at Harvard. Although Gomes does not credit the Foundation alone for the improved racial climate he sees at Harvard, he calls the Foundation "a risk worth taking."

"The question is now how students should participate [at the Foundation] and not whether they should. And that seems to me a sign of progress," says Gomes. But for those minority students and organizations highly critical of the Foundation, but dependent on it for funding, the change Gomes describes is a constant source of frustration.