Word: homophobia
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When the Undergraduate Council voted last spring to allocate $1,000 to combat homophobia on campus, members expected a competitive bidding process...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Undergraduate Council, which has not hesitated to jut its moral yardstick into national issues such as police brutality, has not issued any kind of statement regarding this conflict. The council, indeed the school, is quick to pass resolutions of sentiment condemning contentious issues like homophobia. And it is quick to sponsor panels on difficult questions like diversity. But the moment the campus actually could use a body to provide a forum for free discussion, the council doesn't say a word...