Counter Drags The Foundation Down

Once again, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations is at the center of controversy--and the controversy concerns the fact that the Foundation won't be at the center much longer.

Within the next few weeks, the Foundation will be moving, from its offices in the basement of University Hall, to offices in the basement of Thayer Hall, the first-year dormitory next door.

Logistically, the move doesn't mean a whole lot. University Hall is a nice building full of administrative offices, smack in the middle of Harvard Yard; Thayer Hall is a nice, newly-renovated dorm just a few yards to the north. The Foundation will have slightly more space in its new digs than it did in the old location.

But, though seemingly trivial, the move does have tremendous symbolic importance. University Hall--the home of Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III--is a decision-making hub, a center of power on campus second only to Massachusetts Hall. The basement of Thayer Hall, by contrast, while only a few steps away, is miles apart in terms of prestige. Until its recent renovation, the basement housed the Harvard Student Agencies; many students remember it as the place they went to drop off their dry cleaning.

Why the move? It depends on whom you ask. Knowles says it is a result of space considerations and the upcoming renovations of University Hall. "Had we not secured (the Thayer Hall space) now for the Foundation, it was clear to me that when University Hall itself is renovated in the relatively near future, only much less desirable and much less central space would have been available," Knowles wrote in an Oct. 12 letter to the Foundation's Student Advisory Committee.

Epps, on the other hand, says the move has to do with University Hall's restricted hours. "The decision was made a couple of years ago to move the Foundation, partly to enable it to do work in the evenings when [University Hall] is normally closed," Epps says. He says the decision as to whether the Foundation returns to University Hall after the renovations is up to Knowles.

Clearly, somebody forgot to coordinate the University's spin control. And, recognizing the administration's double-talk, students who work closely with the Foundation are upset. "The sudden move of the office to a basement of a student dorm suggests that (the Foundation's) role is only remedial and parallel to that of any other student organization," says Kristen M. Clarke '97, president of the Black Students Association.

Clarke's interpretation of the move is absolutely on target. Despite Epps's assertion that Harvard's "faith and support in the Foundation has not changed," the organization's eviction from University Hall--and the uncertainty over whether it will return--makes a clear statement that the University considers the Foundation's role on campus to be marginal.

Harvard's slight of the Foundation appears to be the latest salvo in a two-year-old cold war between top University administrators and Foundation Director S. Allen Counter. Two falls ago, in a clear blow to Counter's authority, the University appointed Epps as its "race czar." What followed was a series of behind the scenes slaps, the most notable being Counter's assistance to leaders of the Asian American Association in drafting a letter to the editors of The Crimson that attacked Epps's handling of campus race issues.

Now, in banishing the Foundation from University Hall, the administration would seem to be taking another swipe at the organization's controversial director. (To be sure, Counter's private office is currently scheduled to stay where it is, in University Hall. That means the director will be faced with the minor inconvenience of commuting between his office and that of the organization he administers.)

And while, given his history, we don't doubt the wisdom of marginalizing Counter himself, we do wish the University wouldn't punish the Foundation--and its student members-for the transgressions of its director.

What history are we referring to? According to Counter, the Harvard Foundation was established in 1981 "for the purpose of improving race relations among Harvard's increasingly diverse student population." Counter has said that the organization's goal is to "create a racially harmonious atmosphere and reduce racial conflicts to the point where there are few if any racial harassment complaints."

In the last few years, the Foundation has invited prominent minority speakers to campus, sponsored race relations conferences, held cultural festivals, offered grants to minority students groups and honored students and faculty who have contributed to improving race relations on campus. In these respects, as The Crimson has pointed out in the past, the Foundation has achieved modest success as a "feel-good" organization.

Sadly, however, Counter himself hasn't always made people feel good. Indeed, the director's own track record when it comes to race relations could be fairly described as miserable.

In a 1985 Crisis magazine article, Counter suggested that certain "para-white ethnic groups," notably "Euro-American individuals and special interests with powerful influence in the media" were participants in an "ethnic scheme designed to denigrate Afro-Americans." The article, though well-encoded, seemed to echo traditional anti-Semitic refrains about alleged Jewish media conspiracies.

Several year later, in the spring of 1992, the Foundation director was forced to apologize for a letter he wrote to the editors of The Crimson that was widely perceived as anti-Semitic. At the time, former Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel Coordinating Council Chair Daniel J. Libenson '92 called for Counter to resign from his Foundation post, describing the director's behavior as "gross professional misconduct" that amounted to "the biggest blow to race relations at Harvard" in recent memory.

In the wake of the campus furor the letter caused, Counter permitted Hillel, the campus organization for Jewish students, to appoint a permanent member to the Foundation's Student Advisory Committee--a position Hillel members had long desired, but not until then been granted.

Counter has kept a relatively low profile since the turbulent spring days of 1992. Persistent rumors that higher-ups in the Harvard administration were seeking an opportunity to ease the Foundation director out of his job have, until now, proven unsubstantiated.

The Foundation's forced exile from University Hall is, we believe, a sign that Harvard administrators are finally going to get tough on S. Allen Counter. But rather than punishing the students who serve the Foundation, the University should consider moving Counter himself to the basement of Thayer--and leaving the best part of his organization alone.