Word: harvard
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Opposition to the continuation of the program seems based in the fear that it will be perceived as discriminatory against men, leaving Harvard open to lawsuits for violation of Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments. This law stipulates that universities and colleges must offer men and women equal educational opportunities. While other schools like Dartmouth and Brown have continued women-only programs despite the possibility of such lawsuits, the Harvard administration has been unwilling to consider following their lead...
Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87 has maintained that despite the recent merger, the Institute remains committed to attracting young Harvard women to the sciences and retaining them in those fields. She suggested in an e-mail message that the discussions which are part of the Science Alliance could take place on an independent basis during the regular school year on the Radcliffe campus: "I can imagine many positive ways (conferences, speaker series, colloquia, etc.) to provide networking for women in science during their first year and beyond...
...Science Alliance might be achieved as effectively through such programs. Incoming first-years will be much more likely to be convinced that they should try science than mid-year students who have already opted for humanities courses. Indeed, the Science Alliance's niche was in roping young Harvard women into the sciences right at the beginning of their college careers. The panels and speakers, the small group setting, the interaction with upperclass women in the sciences--this sustained barrage gave incoming first-year women the confidence to opt for those tough science courses despite orientation week science advising, which might...
...into the program would immediately alter the dynamic. The Science Alliance is an alliance of those facing similar discrimination. While clearly the male participants would not be perpetrators of such discrimination, they do not suffer from it directly. Women, especially women in a highly competitive environment such as Harvard's, often feel that voicing concerns about discrimination and inequity will be viewed by their male peers as an excuse for falling short of a science program's exacting standards. A strong support network of female friends as established by the Science Alliance in its current, single-sex form is crucial...
...sciences is reached, we need programs to help remedy the current discrepancy. To devote special attention to a long-disregarded group is not reverse discrimination, but a correction of a pre-existing problem. The Science Alliance has tremendously improved the life of women in the sciences at Harvard, but it has only just begun to solve the problems. It must be allowed to continue, Radcliffe...