It was the quintessential college scene: dozens of students from the
Harvard Black Men's Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women
picnicking on the Radcliffe Quad, playing capture-the-flag and running
relay races at their end-of-the-year field day. But
just an hour into the festivities on the sunny afternoon in May 2007,
the fun screeched to a halt. Two campus police officers rode up on
motorcycles. Were they students, the officers asked. Did they have
permission to be there? The young men and women, dressed in
Harvard T-shirts, would discover that a fellow student in a nearby dorm
had mistaken them for trespassers, according to students who were there
and whose account was confirmed by Harvard officials. The
incident, which ignited criticism from black students and faculty,
highlighted the prejudices that many black students say they continue
to face at Harvard, not only from police, but from classmates, as well. Leaders
of black student and faculty groups say they hope that Harvard's review
of campus Police Department practices will help spark a wide-ranging
conversation about the racial climate on campus and lead to other
concrete steps by the university to improve it. The review, announced
Tuesday, follows long-standing complaints of racial profiling by police. "The
alarming thing is that this happens in one of the most progressive
towns, the most progressive university, and there's this reluctance on
behalf of students to even acknowledge that there is some covert racism
going on," said Bryan Barnhill, a Harvard senior and former president
of the Black Men's Forum. Barnhill said he would like to see
Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust deliver a speech that makes it
clear Har vard will acknowledge and address racial misunderstandings
and biases. "Rather than just focusing on the Police Department,
it would be a brave step if the president would ignite a broader and
more honest discussion about race," he said. Leaders
of Harvard's Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, and Fellows,
who met with Faust last fall to discuss their concerns, also want her
to go further as she enters her second year at the helm. They are
calling for Harvard to create a campus climate committee and a police
community board, among other initiatives, to foster cross-racial
understanding among students, as well as with the predominantly white
Police Department, a private force overseen by the school. SOURCE:BOSTONGLOBE.COM