A Campus Community?

In 1997, Beth A. Stewart '00 and her focus on student issues won a narrow victory in the Undergraduate Council elections. Last month, pragmatism again defeated progressivism, but the word on everyone's lips was "community."

Candidates T. Christopher King '01 and Fentrice D. Driskell '01 introduced the topic, campaigning on a platform which called for "building a healthier Harvard."

"At the [candidates] debate in Loker, every question was coming towards us, because our platform was something new," Driskell says.

While the King-Driskell ticket was defeated by Noah Z. Seton '00 and Kamil E. Redmond '00, the candidates made a strong showing. King placed an easy second with 945 cumulative votes--nearly twice the number of votes received by third-place finisher John A. Burton '01, who had been endorsed by a number of progressive student groups.

"Our strong showing was a confirmation that people shared our vision and that this place could be healthier and stronger," King says.

But what students were really voting for when they cast a vote for "community" remains unclear.

Some have connected it to an increase in Christian student groups on campus. Others point to the College's unrelenting emphasis on individual achievement, compounded by an increasingly fragmented campus, as factors in the candidates' strong showing.

But while the reasons remain unclear, it appears that the King-Driskell campaign hit a campus nerve and identified a formidable challenge--one that both the council and the College have been unable to meet.

Spiritual Challenge?

According to King's campaign manager, William K. Moss '99, the 945 votes King received indicate that students want to feel a sense of belonging--a desire that he says is characteristic of college-age students nationwide.

"The need for community has to do with our generation. We are asking more what is real, why are we here?" Moss says. "We feel an emptiness regarding group affairs."

But many students interpreted King and Driskell's emphasis on community as evidence of a religious agenda.

While Moss casts the mood on campus in philosophical terms, he acknowledges the campaign's message was particularly well-received in religious circles.

"Many Christian morals coincide with what [King and Driskell] saw missing here on campus: a sense of brotherhood, sisterhood, camaraderie," says Moss, who is also the head Sunday school teacher at Memorial Church.

King's campaign success comes at a time of increased religious activism at Harvard.

"They've sort of been in their prayer rooms but now they are beginning to come out of the closet," says Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. "I've thought for sometime religion would become a greater part of the campus because of the increase in the number of Christian groups on campus."

And Adams House Master Robert J. Kiely says an increase in the number of courses dealing with religion, many of which are taught by prominent faculty, as well as decreased fear that religion will lead to bigotry, has made expression of religion more acceptable.

"There was a time when it was assumed that being religious was not a cool or intellectually respectable thing. I think that has really changed. It is a change across the country," he says.

Seeking Common Ground

Some campus observers suggest that students are grasping for a sense of community in reaction to increased cynicism and career pressures.

"What community there is is being eaten away by several things, including over-busyness'--the fact that certain types of community take a little bit of leisure," says Kiely, who has served as master of Adams for 26 years.

Kiely says Harvard students are now so busy that they have little time left to form strong bonds with their classmates.

"Something that does seem to have changed, although the economy is fantastic, is that students seem much more anxious about jobs," Kiely says.

Driskell criticizes Harvard for fostering a career-oriented mentality.

"The University prepares us to be great stockbrokers, or to run that soundstage in L.A., but it doesn't recognize us as individuals," she says.

This academic emphasis makes students cynical, King says.

"Harvard has all these individuals, all incredibly intelligent and accomplished [and] all that intelligence can lead to cynicism," he says.

A Fragmented Campus

While observers agree that students have become more community-oriented, they are less sure how to foster a sense of belonging.

From its colonial origins as a training ground for ministers, the College has become home to a tremendously diverse student body, with fewer common goals.

"Harvard College lacks a unifying vision for what kind of students it wants to produce," says Beth A. Stewart '00, out-going council president. "Part of the outgrowth of the lack of a mission is there is just no community on campus."

Stewart says she believes the administration has further damaged the sense of community at Harvard by randomizing the Houses.

"Randomization has shifted community from House life to student groups, which is unfortunate because student groups are somewhat homogenous," she says.

But Driskell stresses that while her campaign appealed to students alienated by randomization, her goal was not to recreate the old House communities.

"In the wake of randomization, the Houses have lost their personality. At the same time, what the Houses were, is that a community?" she asks.

Driskell stresses that students want a campus-wide community, something the House system did not provide.

Council Efforts Fall Flat

In the past, the council's efforts to foster campus-wide spirit have been few and far between. And the attempts the council has made have failed stir students' enthusiasm.

"People seem to have a problem with the U.C.," says Dorothy E. Johnston '02, who led the first year contingent of the King campaign. [They] think that the U.C. is out of touch with the student body."

The council has tried to organize social events in the past, such as the poorly attended "Loker Night," but Stewart says that council has never had much success with social planning and has restricted itself to Springfest in the recent years.

This council also eliminated national politics from its agenda under Stewart's administration, a change, she says, which may have made the council less inspiring.

In the past, "the council came to be energized by progressive politics. Our term didn't have that same energy," Stewart says. "Some people felt that we needed a more cohesive statement, and the community message might have been an outgrowth of that."

King says his platform offered the council a broader, community-based purpose.

"The U.C. won't be inspiring until there is an overarching vision for the whole organization," King says. "It needs to involve more people in the process."

Questioning Community

While King and Driskell called for campus-wide unity, some students questioned whether the candidates' vision of community was one they could share.

King's religious affiliation in particular was scrutinized after an election commission member was forced to resign after sending an e-mail message to the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship list, asking for prayers for King and Driskell.

"I never said that I was a Christian, it was used as my Achilles," says King, who is also a member of Christian Impact. King says he did not solicit the support of the election commission member.

"A lot of people felt strongly that the Chris King campaign was too Christian," Stewart says, but "a lot of people including myself felt they were really mistreated about that."

King also came under attack for his membership in a final club, an affiliation which some said undermined his ability to represent the student body as a whole. The clubs, which do not admit women, are not officially recognized by the University.

King says he still hopes to implement his vision of community.

"We plan to continue, I don't know what avenue, but I am going to seek a lot of advice and a lot of leverage on campus, says King. "Everything I talked about except the $40,000 idea we can essentially do, even though I wasn't elected." (The King-Driskell plan called for the council to spend a portion of the $40,000 in newly found council funds toward the building of a student center, as a gesture to the College of student commitment to community.)

But some council members doubt King's community message will dominate the new council.

"We all have our own definitions of how we should follow or pursue community, so I don't know that there's going to be any council working toward community," Burton says.

But with 945 supporters, the community vision mobilized by the King campaign is unlikely to disappear, and King promises the dialogue will continue.

"People believe this is the beginning of the discussion," King says.