Counter Editorial Is Outrageous

Your editorial concerning Dr. Allen Counter and the Harvard Foundation ("Counter Drags The Foundation Down," Opinion, Oct. 25, 1994) is so inaccurate and so outrageous that I feel compelled to respond.

Your assertion that the decision to move the Foundation Office from University Hall to Thayer Hall was a calculated also at either Dr. Counter or the Foundation is absurd. The proposed move has actually been under discussion for more than a year prompted first, by space issues and by the Foundation's need for access after the building's normal closing hours; and secondly, by the prospective renovation of University Hall in the next year or two. Moreover, Dr. Counter himself will retain an office in University Hall, hardly a step which suggests that the College is trying to punish or isolate him. Even your own staff dissent questions the logic and basis for the Editorial's conclusions.

Both personally and as Dean of the College, I have the greatest respect for the work of the Harvard Foundation and Dr. Allen Counter. This feeling has only been enhanced during the past year, when the Foundation has been a leader and an active partner with others in trying to address racial and ethnic issues on this campus. Indeed, I believe that we have made much progress in the past year due in large part to efforts of the Foundation alone and in partnership with Dean Epps and others.

In a search for sensationalism and controversy the Crimson sinks to the level of the worst tabloid press by advancing such ridiculous and unsubstantiated assertions as contained in the editorial. The Harvard Community deserves better from you and expects better from a publication with a long tradition of excellence. L. Fred Jewett '57   Dean of Harvard College