An End to the 'Challenge'

The Undergraduate Council made the prudent decision Oct. 29 to swallow its pride and amend the failed anti-homophobia grant bill it passed last March. In its original form, the bill provided a $1,000 grant to a student group or group of students who came up with the best plan to fight homophobia at Harvard. By the Oct. 29 meeting, however, no applications had been received to date. As amended, the grant offer will terminate at the end of November unless applications are given to the council beforehand.

The council's intention of fighting on-campus homophobia was laudable, but the bill itself was plagued with problems. First, it failed to allocate any money for publicity, a move that proved to be fatal. More fundamentally, the bill trivialized the very problem it aimed to eradicate. By presenting homophobia as a "challenge" that could be sufficiently addressed with a single project or event, the council overlooked the systemic nature of homophobia on campus. It diverted attention away from seeking long-term solutions that would have a more significant impact than some one-time event.

The bill's failure to elicit a strong response shouldn't prevent the council from redirecting its efforts toward attacking on-campus homophobia. By increasing dialogue between students, faculty and the administration, by organizing and funding panel discussions, by lobbying to improve advising for gay students and by working to ensure a campus free of hate crimes, the council can do much more to eliminate homophobia than any single event would have done.

On a final note, it must be acknowledged that the council has made a wise decision in choosing to return the $1,000 to the fund that finances grants for student groups as opposed to the special fund from whence it came. Money for student groups is exceptionally scarce this year and the extra $1,000 will provide funds for several groups that otherwise would not have received assistance.