Zaheer R. Ali '94

"While it seems that many of the administrators are willing to quickly dismantle the Harvard Foundation and the Office of Race Relations and Minority Affairs, they do not seem as anxious to put something in its place," Ali says.

In 1982, a report by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes created the Foundation and nixed ideas for a Third World Center, citing its potentially divisive effect on the campus atmosphere.

But Ali says criticism of the Foundation makes it clear that minority students on campus do need centers of their own more than ever before.

"With the attempts to dismantle or weaken that office that I have seen over this last year and a half, it's becoming increasingly clear what the Harvard Foundation was set up for," Ali says.

"[It] was to appease students who wanted a Third World Center and deceive the students into thinking that this would serve as a [center] that would have some level of autonomy from the administration," he says.

"We should have gone with the Third World Center," Ali says. "We definitely see the limitations of anything that is connected to the college administration."

"Don't blame us for coming together to keep each other warm when you locked us out in the cold," says Ali. "We're not going to be knocking on this door forever." Ali, who is a Muslim, paraphrases the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammed: "A smart person would build a house of his own."

Ali says the BSA has only recently looked into raising funds for a students' center. In recent months, minority leaders have called on the College administration to help finance minority students' centers.

"The College is not affirming in any way, shape or form our being on this campus, then they should not blame us for wanting to do this for ourselves, on our own," says Ali. "The College is not willing to provide us with the resources that we need."

In recent years, critics of the Black Students Association have said the organization has become increasingly radical and militant. In particular, they point to a number of controversial speakers the group has invited, including former City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries, Nation of Islam's Conrad Muhammed, and rapper Sister Souljah.

"I think that many in the student community, unfortunately, feel that the BSA or Black students are responsible for the tension on Harvard's campus," says Ali.

Ali says that the BSA's history of bringing controversial issues to the fore is an attempt to educate the Harvard community, rather than to represent a particular position.

"We do things and sponsor programs that bring issues to the surface," he says. "We do not ourselves originate any message per se, but we bring the message to the community."

"I think to blame the messenger for the message is very faulty and to blame the victim for being the victimizer in terms of race relations is very frustrating for the Black community," Ali says.