Reporter's Notebook

"There's never an empty trap around here."

-- A dining hall worker, describing the rat situation in Lowell House.

"They are so bold now that they come out during the day. If there were nothing around for them to eat then they wouldn't come out, but people aren't going to stay around and work and clean and not get paid."

--James H. Neil, a shop steward for Local 26 in Winthrop House, the dining hall workers' union.

All in the Know: In an interview earlier this week, Dean of the Graduate School of Design Gerald M. McCue discussed the lack of minority representation in the school's student and faculty body. McCue says that he is not planning to make any senior appointments to the 17-member tenured faculty. But, he says, "At all levels there is consciousness of the University's Affirmative Action program." He adds that a committee formed this year to examine what can be done to improve the situation is finding "more positive results."

"I just stayed in my little cage reading a book."

--Associate Director of the Danforth Center Sue A. Lonoff, describing what she did while stuck in a Widener Library elevator. Lonoff eventually escaped from the elevator with the help of a firefighter "who very gallantly lent me his hand."

Charles J. Ogletree, who last week accepted a tenure-track position on the Law School's faculty, is a defense lawyer for Lonnie L. Gilchrist. The former Merrill Lynch stockbroker was convicted of killing his boss a year ago.

"It is unusual for a professor to take a trial because trials are inherently of an unpredictable length. But sometimes a professor holds that a matter is so important that he needs to pitch in."

-- Law School Dean James Vorenberg '49 on Ogletree before Gilchrist's verdict came in.

From The Crimson mailbag: Looking for a caterer for an office party? Try the Harvard Dining Services Catering Department. A glossy fold-out flyer advertising the service says it can provide "all occasion cakes," "hors d'oeuvres--hot and cold," "cocktail set ups," and "party platters--sweet and savory." No mention of venerable vegetables.

"I think it is important for a university to remember it is a university. We should encourage this kind of cross-fertilization."

--Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, about a graduate seminar he will co-teach next year with Professor of Geology Steven J. Gould and Porter Professor of Philosophy Robert Nozick.

"Harvard can't say that they are a non-profit organization that fundraises with a tin cup, given the size of their endowment. We have to look at them as we would any corporation."

--Domenic M. Bozzotto, president of the dining hall workers' Local 26 union, about collective bargaining with the University.

Dropping the Political Ball: During a memorial service for radical activist Abbie Hoffman at his boyhood temple in Worcester Wednesday, former Boston Celtic Bill Walton recalled meeting Hoffman while he was underground, on the run from a possible life imprisonment for cocaine trafficking charges.

Walton--himself an anti-war activist who was then playing professional basketball--said, "We had a lousy night. I was feeling pretty low. I was walking through the streets. I was very angry--kicking cans, kicking boxes, kicking dogs. Then suddenly, this short guy pops out of nowhere and says 'Hi Bill, I'm Abbie.'

"He immediately began telling me how to improve my play. `You've got to start doing this and stop doing that,' he said--a typical short, Jewish kid telling a big guy what to do," Walton told the laughing audience at Temple Emmanuel. "Thank you, dear Abbie. You were the Celtics true sixth man."

Many of Hoffman's friends and admirers reacted with shock this week to a coroner's report which determined that the 52 year-old activist committed suicide last week. "Abbie was just too full of life to commit suicide. It just wasn't his style," one friend said Wednesday. "If Abbie were going to kill himself, he would have called a press conference first."

It's probably hopeless, but at least we should show them that we deserve to represent our school."

--Undergraduate Council member Athan G. Tolis '91 on the upcoming meeting between student representatives and the Corporation, Harvard's seven-member chief governing board.

"To the extent that women that otherwise would be majoring in economics do not do so, our educational mission is damaged."

--Economics Head Tutor J. Bradford Delong on the low numbers of women concentrating in the department.