Word: pearling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Hoping to give students more to say than Baaaa. Pearl began serving on the Dowling Committee charged with formulating a new student government as a sophomore. And she sacrificed an opportunity to become chairman of the assembly next fall to stay on the committee. At first, she left it was "a real chance to make changes not just in student government, but in Harvard governance." After the four students, three Faculty members and one administrator on the panel had met for a few months, however, she "realized there were limits on what we were going...
...fall of sophomore year, Pearl was admonished by the Ad Board for never turning in a plan of study. She finally decided on a special concentration in Modern Studies or "Modernism in Literature. Art and Film." It was turned down, but she kept on taking courses as though it had been accepted. That stubborness dedication, chutzpah, or whatever, paid off this year, when the Faculty at last granted her wish...
...Pearl's interest in modernism was partly political. "It seemed to me that the artist in the 20th century was the closest thing to a real leader. Politicians haven't been as effective leaders as modern artists," she says, adding that "Today, nobody's leading anybody we're all sheep Not just at Harvard, but all over...
...Before the committee started meeting we were worried about getting good, left-leaning faculty on it," she says. "But we never once considered the possibility that a student on it would be reactionary." For a long time, Pearl adds, the committee members" sat around having pleasant discussions," but then the meetings were closed to the press" and it suddenly got very acrimonious as we started taking votes." Several times, Pearl and Joseph McDonough '80, the two assembly representatives on the panel, considered walking out. They didn't, because they felt "a flawed structure would be better than none...
...crucial issue for Pearl was guaranteeing minority representation on the proposed Student Council. She and McDonough were the only proponents of the idea on the committee. "I wanted the Faculty to recognize that you couldn't just write minority students out, and that a constitution that didn't write them in did in fact write them out," she remembers. "But one or two lone white voices trying to explain the effects of institutional racism to a group of skeptical students and Faculty was just not enough...