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JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL

against Hutus. And His yearlong fellowship at Harvard Rwanda’s government, Noel has enabled Twagiramungu to proceed Twagiramungu says, meets if they happen to be criticism of the long-term part of the governing with his scholarly work unmolested. He imprisonment of probable party, he says, even is collaborating with Noah Weisbord, a innocents by implying that Hutus are protected teaching fellow at the Law School, on a anyone who objects is “on the side of genocide suspects.” from prosecution. At book about Gacaca, and he has written the same time, the another book on traditional Rwandan government impris- poetry. His wife and three children, ons thousands of in- whom he was forced to leave behind dividuals on little or when he fled Rwanda, have been able to no evidence; Twagi- join him here. ramungu estimates that only about When their fellowships end, the 10,000 suspects have fellows must move on to new positions. been tried in the 10 “We can support scholars for a year, but years since the end after that, it’s mostly up to them,” says of the genocide, al- Jacqueline Bhabha, who directs the SAR though the govern- program at Harvard and hopes future fel- ment has arrested lowships can be prolonged to three years. about 100,000. The Although past fellows no longer have full government, he says, access to Harvard’s facilities and facul- use—Gacaca (pronounced “gatchatcha”)— meets criticisms of the long-term impris- ties, she adds, “It’s a tremendous boost to employs 260,000 elected judges in a tradi- onment of probable innocents by implying their reputations” to have been a fellow— tional form of tribunal adapted to provide that anyone who objects is “on the side of a permanent benefit for a fledgling scholar. “mass justice for mass violence.” Every genocide suspects.” �john a. la rue adult member of the community partici- pates in six stages of justice. In the first three stages, the community compiles a comprehensive list of residents prior to Women’s Center available in the Yard dormitory base- the genocide, a list of those killed, and a At the end of a year that has seen ments where the Undergraduate Council, list of all those accused of genocide. In the various plans for the College (including the Independent, the Salient, Kuumba, City- fourth stage, the accused either defend the curricular review) mark time or un- Step, and six other groups headed to the themselves, or publicly confess. If defen- ravel, matters are quietly speeding ahead Quad now operate. “There’s a ripple ef- dants do not confess, then the fifth stage with one project that has long been on fect,” Kidd says. “We start to think about consists of cross-examination and con- the table: a women’s center. Plans for a how the space can be used. There has frontation, followed by the sixth stage, renovated space in the basement of Cana- been consistent consensus among wom- deliberation and sentencing. day Hall have already been drawn up, and en’s groups that a center is needed.” The Gacaca system su≠ers from multi- a director search committee, chaired by That need crystallized in April 2004, ple flaws, each exacerbated by the passage associate dean of the College Judith H. when 13 groups submitted a proposal for of time. Confessors are generally sen- Kidd, expects to name its choice by the a women’s center in the reconfigured tenced to seven years of imprisonment end of this semester. “We’re on a fast Hilles that asserted, “[A] space dedicated and additional community-service time; track now,” Kidd says. If all goes smooth- to the support and betterment of because many have been detained for 10 ly, the center should be operating this fall. women’s experiences at Harvard College years already, the sentence often amounts This represents a sudden departure is vitally necessary.” The proposal was to time served. Twagiramungu worries from the College’s longstanding ap- convincing, Kidd says: the College de- that survivors will see the Gacaca process proach. Women’s groups have lobbied for cided to proceed with the project. Center as merely a formal means to free génocidiers, a center since Harvard and Radcli≠e proponents eventually called for a more who learn that genocide has no repercus- began their “non-merger merger” process central location, and in mid March, Kidd sions: “We had been told to kill, and we in the 1970s, but previous attempts often unveiled four plans for a redesigned space killed. We have been encouraged to con- fizzled due to lack of funding and admin- in Canaday Hall’s basement, created by fess, and we confessed…It is a game.” The istrative support. Kidd says the College’s Boston architects Kennedy and Violich— killers, he says, “have no remorse.” decision to get behind the center this the same firm enlisted to redo Hilles. Furthermore, this limited recognition of time was provoked by shifting space, not Even as building plans and a director guilt is required only of one side: the shifting agendas. With Hilles Library search proceed, however, not everyone Gacaca process concerns itself only with slated for renovation to create o∞ces for agrees on exactly how a women’s center ethnic Hutu génocidiers, ignoring crimes student groups, new possibilities became should function. Structurally, organizers

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say, it will resemble the Harvard Founda- center would reflect an “extreme” femi- a public-relations e≠ort—the Crimson tion for Intercultural and Race Relations, nist point of view, alienating conservative noted that it would make “an impressive providing an umbrella space for the 26 or mainstream women, as well as men: “A stop on a campus tour”—but in some Harvard organizations already devoted to major purpose of a women’s center must ways, Goodman argues, that’s exactly the women’s issues—from ECHO, an eating- be to empower moderate women, not kind of e≠ort that Harvard has yet to concerns group, to cultural groups, Women feminazis,” they wrote. Dara Goodman make. “The symbolic gesture is really im- in Business, and the Office of Sexual As- ’07, chair of RUS, says that she wants the portant, because Harvard has never done sault Prevention and Response. Alka Tan- same thing. “It’s important that the space that before,” she says. “There was a lot of don ’07, co-chair of the Women’s Leader- is something that every woman feels com- space dedicated to women out at Rad- ship Project, says centralization will help fortable entering, not just women already cli≠e, and now that space is gone. That’s a these groups work more e≠ectively: “A lot involved in women’s-specific interest powerful statement. Having a women’s of us do the same things and target the groups,” she says, adding that it would be center shows that Harvard cares about same audience. The women’s center would part of the job of the incoming director to women and is willing to make changes provide a space to work together.” make the space feel politically neutral. institutionally to support them.” Students have already weighed in with Critics have cast the women’s center as �elizabeth s. widdicombe opinions on how the center should add to campus life. In a survey conducted by the Undergraduate Council in February, re- HARVARD BY THE NUMBERS spondents said they envisioned the center as a resource hub o≠ering one-stop-shop- ping for information on issues such as contraception, self-image, and relation- Left to right: Central Administration, ships. The current plans also call for Service Departments, other “drop-in” space—an open area suited to gatherings and informal meetings. Some say the College should create a Left to right: Law School, School of Government, general student center to meet this need: School of Education, School of Design, Dental School, in a February 16 editorial, Crimson sta≠ers Divinity School, Radcliffe Institute argued that “the considerable amount of resources being put towards the center would be better allocated addressing the SCHOOL FACULTY OF MEDICAL BUSINESS social environment for all Harvard stu- OF PUBLIC ARTS AND SCIENCES SCHOOL SCHOOL dents....” Not everyone agrees: Lauren Ep- HEALTH stein ’07, a council representative and a member of the director search committee, says the women’s center “has to be seen in 0 $500 million $1 billion $1.5 billion $2 billion the larger context of other things happen- ing in the College, where there are major The Schools’ Size changes in availability of student space.” Harvard’s schools vary not only in their mission and in the composition of their fac- She cites three planned projects—a cam- ulties and student bodies, but also in financial terms.The most useful public disclosure pus pub in Loker Commons, new social of those details comes from the Harvard University Fact Book, with a one-year report- space for freshmen, and the new student ing lag. Thus, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004, when University expenses to- activities o∞ces in Hilles—as evidence taled $2.56 billion (about $3 billion this year), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—the that the College is addressing longstand- College and graduate school, with 10,200 students—spent $760 million, just under 30 ing undergraduate requests for additional percent of the total. Harvard Medical School, with 766 degree candidates, expended social space separately. $482 million.The disproportion is attributable, of course, to extensive, costly, spon- Not all students are convinced that the sored biomedical research. The Business School, a much larger entity in classroom women’s center will reach out to a wide terms (1,823 degree candidates), was a nearly $300-million enterprise; but it funds all audience. Some have suggested that the its own research, and includes in its revenues large income streams from executive- space will likely cater to members of education clients and its publishing operations (Harvard Business Review, cases, and those groups, such as the Radcli≠e Union books). The central administration and service departments (maintaining Harvard’s of Students, who pushed hardest for its many buildings, for example, or shoveling snow and prettying up the campus for creation. In a March 17 Crimson op-ed ti- Commencement) each consumed about $200 million. Doing a lot with a little are the tled “Avoiding Bra-Burning Bonfires,” dental, design, divinity, and education schools—all enterprises run on $20 million to first-years Lucy Caldwell and Ramya $55 million per year—and the newcomer,the Radcliffe Institute. Parthasarathy expressed concern that the

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