B-School Paper Will Not Be Sent To New Students

The Harbus News, the student newspaper of Harvard Business School, will not be included in a summer mailing to incoming students for the second year in a row.

Staff members of the Harbus News say they believe that the Business School administration is excluding the paper because it has been critical of the administration on a number of issues.

Gary Mueller, the paper's former news editor, called the paper's exclusion from the mailing "de facto censorship."

"It's shame," Mueller said. "Students should hear the voices of other students."

Loretto Crane, director of the office of communications at the Business School, did not return phone calls yesterday.

According to Harbus executives, the administration told them it would not include the newspaper in the mailing because it would add little value to the introductory packet.

In response to the administration's concerns, the Harbus publisher and editor proposed sending a "value-added" format of the paper which would include a retrospective of the past year and introductions to Cambridge and Boston for incoming students.

But as publisher Tarek Khlat wrote in an editorial that appeared in the Harbus, the administration rejected even the value-added format in order to avoid "clutter" in the mailing.

"When we made a proposal for a value-added format, the reason changed to one of clutter," Khlat wrote. "If the Harbus were included, the reasoning went, other clubs would also have to be included."

But space considerations do not seem to apply equally for other organizations, as materials from student groups including the Women's Student Association (WSA) and the African-American Student Union (AASU) will both be included in the packet.

Kate Burke, Harbus news editor, said she opposes the omission of the newspaper from the mailing, terming it a "bad judgment call to exclude it."

"[It's] better for incoming students to have as much information as possible," Burke said.

Such information gives the students valuable information and new perspectives from students who have already been at the Business School, Burke added.

The Business School policy seems to conflict with College policy. Each summer, the College sends first-year students an envelope containing a diverse group of student publications, including The Crimson, the Independent, the Peninsula, the Perspective and others.

While the packet often contains publications that include information critical of the administration, the packet sent to members of the Class of 1996 also included a Peninsula 56-page double issue on homosexuality, which many members of the Harvard community called insensitive.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III noted that the College includes a cover letter with the summer mailing stating that the publications "do not represent the official views of Harvard College."

But the variety of publications sent in the packet "demonstrates that Harvard College is a forum for vigorous debate and that is the educational. purpose that we seek to serve," Epps said.