Don't Do What Johnny Does

DESPITE RUMORS to the contrary, graduation doesn't mean an entrance into the real world.

All of the several thousand who will graduate today have been part of a real world for the entire four, seven, 15 or however many years they have gone to school here. They are the consumers of a product sold by the Harvard Corporation.

Nothing is more a part of the real world than a corporation. Like any business Harvard has an extensive administration, lots of lawyers, decision-makers, big wigs and small ones, and even dieticians. So graduates, before you go off to some toney investment banking house, some impressive government agency or even some struggling altruistic enterprise, look at the Harvard Corporation, do the opposite, and learn how to be a proper leader.

First lesson, pressure for governing bodies that reflect the diversity of the people your organization serves. For 350 years Harvard has had only white, gentile men run its University, except for two white, male Jews who have served on the seven-man governing corporation.

Second, give people or communities around you something more than just token respect. In other words, don't abuse those who are less powerful. Harvard eats up the land around the Square driving up property values and displacing poor families. The University fails to maintain its rental properties, so it can drive out tenants and raise rents.

Third, don't try to sell things for more than they're worth or try to pass off shoddy merchandise. You'll quickly go out of business. Harvard charges the housing fee to all its students--even though some of its dorms are falling apart. Any Nader's Raider would say that those buildings have to be quickly repaired.

Fourth, bring a modicum of morality into your decision-making process. You didn't have to take a Moral Reasoning course for nothing, although that's a thought that might come to mind when looking at Harvard. The University administration only reacts to pressure from the outside before examining the moral aspects of its decisions. It took a year of excessive student pressure in the late '70s before Harvard even considered creating a body to advise it on shareholder responsibility.

Harvard still refuses to divest from corporations doing business in South Africa. Instead of making the morally right move, it hides behind half arguments and makeshift programs, saying that the University needs to maintain a voice in that nation. Well, why don't they invest more in such corporations and gain a larger voice? Because even the administration knows that would be immoral. Divestment is difficult and will require time and energy, but such is the nature of moral choices.

THE FINAL most important lesson you could take from the Harvard Corporation is to be open about decisions and receptive to criticism. Harvard has been running scared from a campaign by three graduates running for seats on a 30-member, rubber-stamping oversight committee on a divestment platform. Instead of facing the challenge to their investment ideas, the administration has tried to rig the election and has hidden facts about their decision-making process from the public.

Life without tutors is scary, no doubt. But keep this one motto in mind when you get out there--do what John Harvard wouldn't do and you'll do fine.