Underhanded Crimson Women Undergraduates Two years in the making, the Women’s Their friends began to ask questions Guide to Harvard was distributed to stu- long before the prosecutors did. Suzanne dents—women and men alike—at the be- M. Pomey ’02 and Randy J. Gomes ’02 ginning of spring term. The 272-page book, seemed to be spending money a little too edited by Peggy Lim ’01 and published by freely—perhaps it was the $500 color- the Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Leadership screen cell phone, the open bar at T.G.I. Fri- Project (an undergraduate group “devoted day’s for Suzanne’s twenty-first birthday to increasing the number, effectiveness, and party, the shopping sprees, or the flat- diversity of female leaders”), is something screen television set that made them won- of a hybrid. der. Whatever it was, the two Winthrop On one hand, it is a toolbox: a compre- House seniors were certainly living the high hensive directory listing women in the Fac- life. On January 11, the other shoe dropped. ulty of Arts and Sciences, extracurricular Middlesex County prosecutors handed organizations (from Harvard Right to Life to Students for Choice), social groups, aca- down an indictment alleging that Gomes demic resources, scholarships and internships, and health-related information on and Pomey had funded their “lavish everything from mental-health and gynecological care to sexual assault. At the same lifestyle” with more than $91,000 stolen time, the guide’s historical sections may teach undergraduate women—and remind from the funds of Hasty Pudding Theatri- alumnae—just what their forebears endured, and how far they’ve come. cals (HPT) while Pomey served as busi- There are withering recollections, like that of Adrienne Rich ’51, LL.D. ’90, at her ness manager and producer of the nation’s twenty-fifth reunion: “In our male-dominated classes, we were being trained to…be- oldest theatrical organization. On Febru- come companions and hostesses for executives, lawyers, nuclear physicists, politicians, ary 5, both pled not guilty to a single psychiatrists, and, of course, Harvard professors.… (If I recall correctly, every engaged charge of larceny over $250. senior received a rosebud at our graduation luncheon—reward for a lesson well Prosecutors allege that the two used the learned.)” A generation later, Katherine Park ’72, Jf ’80, Ph.D. ’81, found that “Being hit Hasty Pudding’s credit-card machine to on by tutors and teaching fellows—we had no word, or even a mental category, for credit their own bank accounts on at least what later came to be called sexual harassment—was an ongoing fact of life. Com- two dozen occasions in the course of 15 ments about ‘Cliffie bitches’ were too numerous even to notice—fallout in part from months with amounts ranging from $213.16 that dreadful four-to-one ratio and from the general stigma attached in that period to up to $9,870—an average of about $1,500 a smart, intellectual women.” And yet, despite horrid experiences as a co-residency pi- week. The thefts went unnoticed until the oneer in Winthrop House, Park ultimately found community among the undergradu- Pudding’s new co-producers took over last ate women and men of the day—enough so that she has returned as Zemurray Stone summer. Lena Demaskiah ’03 found a large Radcliffe professor of the history of science. discrepancy in the group’s financial There are also emotionally cooler, but still vivid, evocations of different eras, such records and began her own investigation; as “The Three Flavors of Radcliffe,” by Faye Levine ’65, Ed.M. ’70, BI ’74, the first after discovering the scale of the theft and woman executive editor of the Crimson. Of the exotic “lime” style of certain Radcliffe the possible culprits, she went to the Har- students, Levine wrote: “Girls who adopt it…probably give wholesome Harvard vard University Police Department. Detec- freshmen from Iowa their first proof that the East is indeed strange looking. Greek tive Sergeant Richard Mederos inter- shoulder bags are extremely popular, as are ski jackets, black tights, pierced ears, half viewed both suspects on September 24, high heels, long unpolished fingernails, rain ponchos, ‘Marimekko’ dresses, primitive and according to court records, both ad- jewelry, and long hair. The most well-dressed of them imitate a European sort of gray- mitted to their role in the crime. Mederos beige, expensive simplicity; the sloppy ones wear ski polo shirts and dungarees and obtained a search warrant and one night can be called (to their probable disdain) ‘beat.’ They have generally been to Europe, or last fall, HUPD o∞cers backed a van up to hitchhiked across America.” the Winthrop House gate and loaded it Whether for that kind of perspective on how the Harvard experience evolved, or full of alleged contraband from Gomes’s for hands-on guidance on how to thrive in the College community today, the Guide room. Court papers also allege that the would seem to have plenty to offer to readers of all persuasions—and genders. Lest stolen funds financed shopping sprees and any of the students who received copies be tempted to cast theirs aside too hastily, trips to New York City, Chicago, Palm the back cover invites “female readers” to “check out the history of the foresisters” Springs, and Cape Cod. who attended Radcliffe as “the Annex,” and “male readers” to encounter “plenty of in- Despite the high stakes, the case re- formation that may be directly useful to you (although you can probably skip the part mained a closely guarded secret among about gynecological exams).” For more information, or to obtain a copy of the guide, Pudding executives. On the same day the contact the Ann Radcliffe Trust in Harvard College ([email protected]). executives announced this year’s Man and

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Woman of the Year—the highlight of each of the new female social club Isis, and— Crimson, PBHA, and HSA each year with- year’s performance season—the Middle- most famously—the girl Anthony Hopkins out incident, and hundreds of groups sex County grand jury completed its in- French-kissed during last year’s Pudding maintain smaller budgets. “I still believe dictment. The news broke just a week Man of the Year event. Last December, the that all but a minute percentage of Har- later as the Crimson trumpeted, “Two Pud- Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes (FM) magazine se- vard students are honest and handle ding Members Indicted.” lected Pomey, a Kentucky native and the money responsibly,” said associate dean of As the story was picked up by the na- daughter of a retired Army o∞cer and auto- the College David P. Illingworth ’71. mobile saleswoman, as one Nevertheless, the College has gradually of its “15 Most Intriguing Se- tightened its regulation of student funds in niors” for her apparent mas- the last decade—although its guidelines tery of Harvard’s social life. still leave plenty of loopholes. The dean’s One friend told FM that o∞ce requires an annual proposed budget Pomey’s involvement in (it does not actually follow up on whether Harvard life stemmed from those figures prove realistic), and ever since “one part genuine interest, the EWC theft, the College has required two parts pursuit of fame.” each group’s treasurer to attend a College- “Since to most people, she run seminar on budgeting and finances. seemed to be at the top of the Now the College may be tightening its Harvard social ladder, her fall oversight further. In the spring of 2000, took on the character of a Illingworth approached Harvard Risk morality play, in which some- Management and Audit Services (RMAS), one climbed too high thanks the University’s internal auditor, to ask to ill-gotten gains and then about the possibility of auditing select stu-

HARVARD CRIMSON took a fall,” said Ross G. dent groups. So far, RMAS has conducted Suzanne Pomey and Randy Gomes enter their pleas Douthat ’02, who wrote one audit—o∞cials won’t say of which on February 5. about the Pomey case in a group—and may begin auditing up to five tional press, campus editorials commented Crimson op-ed. “I keep thinking of the Great student groups per year. “Now that the on the thefts, the apparent brazenness of Gatsby…. Like Gatsby, she started out mid- Hasty Pudding incident has occurred, I in- the two accused students, and the pres- dle-class in the Midwest, came east, and tried tend to see that more budgets are more sures on those who aspire to the campus’s to spend her way to popularity and social carefully scrutinized than in the past,” moneyed circles. Gomes, a native of Ply- success. And it worked, as it worked with Illingworth said. The Pudding, too, has re- mouth, Massachusetts, who allegedly rep- Gatsby, as long as the money was there.” vamped its financial system with the help of resented himself on occasion as a relative RMAS, the show’s producers wrote in the of Plummer professor of Christian morals Pomey and gomes’s alleged scheme is e-mail that informed its alumni of the case. Peter J. Gomes, proved to be an elusive hardly unprecedented in recent College EWC similarly reformed its financing after figure; he had been involved in campus history. In 1993, the new chairs of Evening the 1993 theft, and is now audited annually. theater and gay organizations and worked with Champions (EWC), Eliot House’s an- for Let’s Go, the Harvard Student Agen- nual benefit skating program, discovered More difficult to change than ac- cies’ (HSA) travel-guide series. According more than $115,000 missing from the counting practices, however, will be the to court records, the scheme had been group’s bank account. Two former EWC student culture that encourages free hatched to help cover his drug habit, executives were indicted: David G. Sword spending and easy money. Entrance and which had grown from ecstasy in his ’93 on one count of larceny over $250 and acceptance into the culture that exists in freshman year to crystal methampheta- Charles K. Lee ’93 on 58 counts of larceny many clubs, especially elite social organi- mine. In all, prosecutors say $22,549.22 was over $250 and eight counts of larceny zations like the Pudding, the all-male final transferred into Pomey’s accounts and under $250. Both were convicted and Lee clubs, or the newer all-female groups like $68,440.74 to Gomes’s accounts, beginning served a year in prison. Scandal hit again in the Bee, all but require money. “However while Pomey was business manager and 1995, when students at Harvard Yearbook meritocratic our University may be, its continuing through her term as co-pro- Publications and the Krokodiloes a cap- elite social circles require considerable ducer of HPT 153, Fangs for the Memories. pella group were charged with smaller wealth for admission,” Ross Douthat said Despite the claim that the scheme had thefts. Most recently, former Currier in an interview. Most students can pass started with Gomes, Pomey became the House Committee treasurer Natalie J. the BMW- and SUV-lined final-club park- center of attention. In the past two years, Szekeres ’97 was indicted for embezzling ing lots and the numerous Burberry she had evolved into a campus celebrity: a $7,550 of House funds for personal use. scarves in the Yard without noticing or former Phillips Brooks House Association Still, such thefts must be kept in per- caring, but some become obsessed with (PBHA) cabinet member and president of spective. Millions of dollars flow through breaking into those circles. the Alpha Kappa Theta sorority, cofounder the co≠ers of large organizations like the Some lower- (continued on page 64)

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portunities here,” Weinstein said. Although both enrolled for the spring Students on work-study and finan- semester and will presumably complete cial aid may not have as much time their graduation requirements on time for (or money) to socialize as their richer June’s commencement, Harvard typically peers—and sometimes, that extra withholds a degree if there are pending time or money can mean the di≠er- criminal charges against a student. Once ence between acceptance into a mer- the criminal charges are discharged, the itocratic group or into one of the College’s administrative board takes up elite campus clubs. “It’s not that stu- the case. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences dents are forced to spend, but money has long been wary of expelling students; does make acceptance that much the most recently publicized case, in 1999, easier,” said Jordana R. Lewis ’02, involved Joshua M. Elster ’00, who was who also wrote about the crime. As dismissed from the College after pleading students have analyzed the alleged guilty in Middlesex County Superior Pudding thefts, one theory suggests Court to six felony counts stemming from

JON CHASE/HARVARD NEWS OFFICE that Pomey and Gomes thought that a rape case. In the only previous case of Pomey with Man of the Year Anthony Hopkins flashy displays of money would open similar size, the EWC theft, both Sword doors otherwise closed to them. and Lee had graduated before the thefts or middle-class students do have trouble “The most fascinating thing to me,” Lewis came to light and the College has not adjusting to life in a place that includes said, “was the end to which they put the moved to revoke their degrees. a moneyed elite, according to Diane A. money: to try to buy…friends and create a Douthat, though, said he believes that Weinstein, a counselor at the Bureau of history of themselves that didn’t exist.” the students accused of such thefts often Study Counsel who studies the special are merely exercising the traits that got pressures facing such students. She sug- Where the pudding case goes now is them into Harvard in the first place. “Har- gested that some of the issues may stem unclear; at their first court appearance in vard is filled with people like Suzanne— from unfamiliarity with, and lack of guid- February, in a Cambridge courtroom filled not to the same pathological degree, but ance in, navigating “high society.” During with journalists and Pudding executives, people who have the same kind of ‘take- the course of college, she explained, stu- Gomes and Pomey were both released on no-prisoners’ ambition,” he explained. dents sometimes find themselves saying, their own recognizance. Both have already “After all, the whole concept of the ‘Amer- “I can’t ever really go back to my family’s repaid the money allegedly stolen. Sources ican Dream’ is built on the idea of clam- way of life, but I have no [role] models— close to the investigation say that the two bering your way upwards in life—it’s just or only a few.” This realization leads some are likely to accept a plea bargain involving that Harvard, because it attracts the best students to feel like frauds or aliens be- either a suspended sentence or probation and the brightest, tends to have people cause they are trying to become part of a in exchange for avoiding jail time. Their who are particularly good at such clam- foreign culture. lawyers could not be reached for com- bering.” garrett m. graff “There are also the tensions between ment. More complicated, though, is what needing to earn money during the term and kind of future, if any, Gomes and Pomey Garrett M. Gra≠ ’03, a history concentrator, is partaking of the rich extracurricular op- have at Harvard. executive editor of the Harvard Crimson.

THE UNDERGRADUATE and even exchange pleasantries with the lowest job-hunters on the totem pole: sophomores. The hustle and bustle—and fast-spreading rumors about goodies Bear Market ranging from Mickey-eared pencils handed out by Disney to posh CD cases from the Internet consulting firm march- by eugenia v. levenson ’03 FIRST—attracted more than 2,200 stu- dents each year, according to O∞ce of Ca- reer Services (OCS) director William In recent years, the annual fall career firms and investment-banking companies Wright-Swadel. At its height, the forum forum at the Gordon Track and Tennis battled for coveted table spots. Scores of was impressive and inspiring: walking Center has been one of the most conspicu- fresh-faced recruiters, mostly recent grad- through the labyrinth of eager employers, ous displays of the many employment op- uates and living testaments to the possi- even those undergraduates indi≠erent to portunities in finance and technology bility of lucrative futures, rushed to shake finance—myself included—were easily fields open to undergraduates. Consulting hands, pass out logo-enhanced freebies, enticed. After signing up on e-mail lists

64 May - June 2002

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