Students Unmoved by Grape Vote

At first glance, last week's heavily-publicized grape vote seemed like a high-water mark for political activism on campus.

The five-week campaign featured a flood of posters, fervent debates and a higher voter turnout than last year's election for Undergraduate Council president.

But looking closer, many on campus say that the issue was less a firestorm than an annoyance.

Last Wednesday, undergraduates narrowly voted in favor of bringing grapes back to campus dining halls, regardless of whether the fruit bears the label of the United Farm Workers (UFW), which has lobbied for decades for better working conditions for grape-pickers.

The vote, which was preceded by heated debate across campus, effectively ended a 1992 campus ban on non-union table grapes.

Despite the passionate pleas of campus leaders, however, many students say they were unmoved by debate over an issue they consider important but distant from daily life at Harvard.

Almost all students interviewed say that anti-grape voters felt more strongly about the issue than those who voted in favor of grapes.

"I thought it was a joke," says Jay C. Pil '00. "There's bigger issues than grapes."

Pil, who voted in favor of grapes, says the issue was "a fun thing--nothing serious."

"It seemed to me there were some ethnic ties involved--there's a clear identification with people who are experiencing injustice," Adam J. Riess '00 says.

"I think some people cared, especially the people who definitely wanted to vote no, but...I think there are more important things than that," adds Ying Liu '00.

Stacey L. Dworkin '01 says that the attention paid to the issue was generated by a small number of activists.

"You have a lot of left-wingers who try to push their issue towards the majority of people," Dworkin says. "Obviously the majority says they wanted grapes, but most of the publicity was from people against grapes."

Dworkin says that campus protests on behalf of agricultural workers obscured students' support of grapes.

"The majority may not be active, but they still have a voice," Dworkin says.

Others objected to the large volume of publicity the vote generated.

"I resented all the buttons and the candlelight vigil--it seemed to be going overboard just over a fruit," says Jessica Y. He '00.

"People were interested in the grape issue at first, and then it became very trendy to complain about the publicity it was getting," adds Peter J. Simon '00.

While many were put off by the attention paid to the issue, some students appreciated the scrutiny, particularly those who voted against grapes.

"Many students took it very seriously," says Ben R. Harder '99, who voted against grapes. "There may have been more interest in the grape vote than in the U.C. election because it's a highly politicized issue."

Harder defends the grape dialogue and he agrees that strong feelings were more predominant in the anti-grape camp.

"There were definitely more people I knew who were strongly opposed than strongly in favor," he says.

Another anti-grape voter, Tiziana Vargas '01, says she did not believe the referendum was over-publicized.

"I think [the posters] did reflect how people cared," she says. "This issue is really personal for a lot of my friends."

Vargas says that both sides were effective in spreading their opinions.

"We have to be proud that people actually are informed," she says. "What they choose to do with the information is up to them."

Riess says the outcome of the vote can largely be explained by students' indifference.

"It seemed to me there were a lot of people who did not feel one way or the other but thought, 'What the heck, I like grapes,'" he says.