Appreciating PBH

A near tragedy. Twenty-five children in a Phillips Brooks House van tumble over a median on a Boston highway. There are no serious injuries, but the potential for an extremely tragic event is evident.

No one wants to think about what have happened Wednesday in the van carrying 10 too many children, but we should think about why this incident happened--what kind of effect it should have, and what kind of effect it will have.

Phillips Brooks House, Harvard's student-run public service organization, did not directly benefit from the tremendous found drive that Harvard just completed. In fact, as is true of most student organizations at Harvard, PBH students do all their fundraising themselves. And contrary to popular belief, all of Harvard is not rich.

When trying to solicit funds, student organizations at the richest university in the land often hear expressions of protest from potential givers: "Why are you asking me for money? You guys are rich," or "I gave to Harvard already."

The problem is even more acute in an organization like PBH, where many different programs do fundraising under the PBH name. Once someone gives to one program, he or she is not likely to give to the others. This forces public organizations like PBH to sell their programs like private enterprises, competing for business.

I realize that this is a capitalist country, and believe me I am an ardent believer in the free market system and perfect competition. But I don't think that these rules were meant to apply to much-needed community service groups.

I'm sure that if PBH had adequate support, it could have enough vans and drivers to get all of the children anywhere they wanted to go. I'm not excusing the driver for the negligence that she may or may not have shown in this case.

Rather, my point is that if Harvard of individuals would recognize the tremendous good that these programs provide--and support them accordingly--then they would not have to face these situations.

One tragedy that will grow from Wednesday's is that not only the Keylatch program, but all PBH programs, will be severly curtailed. All van drivers will be restricted for at least the immediate future--and the publicity that arises whenever a Harvard group makes a mistake is likely to keep them under wraps for a long time to come.

Of course, Phillips Brooks House should keep a closer watch on its various organizations in order to prevent such incidents from happening. But as is evident from the recent Iran-contra hearings, not even the President of the United States can keep track of all of his programs.

I am sure that, as a result of Wednesday's incident, PBH will have much stricter safety regulations for its counselors. But isn't it too bad that it takes something like this to make us think about the condition of the organization?

Isn't it too bad that this one accident, tarnishing the reputations of Philips Brooks House, will get more publicity than the good work that all of the PBH programs have done this summer?

Hopefully, any action taken now will be the right action: Giving PBH the financial support that it needs to continue and improve its service to the Cambridge community--safely.