Yale Rowers Outduel Harvard

Byerly
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:26:59 +0000

Time for Yale to question rivalry
BY COLLEEN KINDER

Let’s be honest: President Richard Levin’s, GRD '74, speeches usually put us to sleep. If there was ever a moment when Levin’s oration evoked a powerful response from the student body, it was in 1997, when he said two words that caused an entire auditorium of Yalies to go absolutely berserk: Harvard sucks.

You can find these words anywhere on the Yale campus. They are plastered onto bulletin boards, etched into wooden desks, and printed on t-shirts. We have made them the mantra of our college years, and by now, “sucks” follows “Harvard” in common conversation as easily as it does “Bush.”

We students are not the only ones guilty of allowing Harvard to obsess our minds. The Administration seems haunted by its influence. Policies are changed not because change is long overdue, but because the other Ivies, namely Harvard, are changing theirs. These changes may be necessary to stay competitive with our rivals and to attract the best students, but no one can deny that comparison is often taken too far. We evaluate every miniscule facet of Yale life in light of Harvard; perhaps one of the most ridiculous examples is a 1998 Yale Daily News article entitled, “Harvard beats Yale in the race for two-ply toilet paper” [YDN, 1/27/98].

I have never understood why Yale feels a compulsion to constantly compare itself to Harvard. When I came to Yale, I first assumed that the Harvard obsession originated in bitterness at being rejected from the school. But I came to realize that most people chose Yale over Harvard because of genuine preference, not by default.

So if it’s not bitterness, what is behind our fierce anti-Harvard sentiment? Trying to figure it out, I thought of a question someone in my hometown once asked me: “Why would you go to Yale if you could go to Harvard?” This question infuriated me, because I knew he had never stepped on either campus, nor did he have any concept of what either school had to offer. Somehow, most likely by virtue of age, Harvard has been ingrained in the American mind as No. 1.

Levin, our skillfull orator, put it best when he said, “Harvard deserves its high ranking only when judged by the silly criteria of small-minded people.” Yale didn’t make it onto the Saved By the Bell episode when Zack Morris was being hunted down by top colleges. Harvard did (in the form of Max, dressed up in a suit and with a bad accent). Public opinion constantly second-guesses the greatness of the school we know to be the greatest. The result: an inferiority complex that manifests itself in intense hatred of Harvard.

It is tempting to counter doubts about Yale’s status by tearing down Harvard’s. But frankly, adopting a “Harvard Sucks” mantra makes us look lame more than anything else. It is easy to mistake an inferiority complex for inferiority. In an editorial entitled “Always Second Best,” the Crimson applauded us for “proudly carrying the banner of inferiority all these years” [Crimson, 11/19/99]…"

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