An Occasion for Pride

HARVARD STUDENTS did themselves proud last week. By allowing William K. Coors, the controversial chairman of the Adolph Coors Brewing Company, to address and defend himself before a filled Science Center lecture hall, students in general and campus activists in particular went a long way toward repairing Harvard's damaged reputation as a bastion of free speech and an exemplar of the open exchange of ideas.

Coors was brought to Cambridge by the Conservative Club in yet another of its intentionally provocative campus events. In years past, however, the Conservative Club has had the last laugh, succeeding in its goal of goading its ideological opponents into excessive expressions of their opposition to the Club's guests. Two years ago, divestment activists formed a mob outside Lowell House in a misguided attempt to prevent a South African ambassador, who had just addressed the Club, from leaving the campus. And in the past year, overzealous protestors pelted a Nicaraguan contra with eggs and fake blood.

Coors is no less odious a figure than his predecessors on the Conservative Club's circuit of speakers. His company is by most accounts a union-busting, contra-funding, anti-black, anti-gay brewery. Other audiences Coors has addressed in recent years, for instance, have been treated to such insights as the one he delivered to an audience of Black businessmen: "One of the best things the slave traders did for you was to drag your ancestors over here in chains."

Still, Coors has the right to make a fool of himself. Even at Harvard. Fortunately, the nearly 200 students and union workers who protested against Coors last Wednesday night did not try to deny him his right. They picketed outside the Science Center, making their case by chanting slogans and distributing informative literature. This "educational picket," as organizers called it, not only displayed a fundamental respect for Coors' right to speak, but also allowed the audience to ask more informed, penetrating questions of him.

Unfortunately, only Harvard students who attended the event and readers of campus publications were exposed to Wednesday night's exchange. Through some bizarre logical process, University officials--who barred individuals without student identification from attending the event because of security fears--extended the ban to reporters without student i.d. At least two newspapers, two television stations and one radio station were not allowed to cover the speech.

Given recent history, the University's concern that such an inflammatory event not turn into a free-for-all is understandable. But simple common sense dictates that the administration come up with a way to accredit non-campus media so that the community-at-large may have access to such interesting campus events.