Thanks to New England Cable News, the Boston Herald, the Providence Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, NPR, AP, New Republic Online, the Financial Times, CNN, the Nation, the Daily Texan, American Prospect, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Barron's, and practically every other press outlet on the planet, we knew about the cadre of Harvard students that splayed out on the floor of Massachusetts Hall, dangled out the building's windows, and duked it out with the elite school's administration over a living wage for Harvard employees. Not only were we informed that the Crimson kids had taken over a building, but we also knew - in the kind of excruciatingly meticulous detail usually reserved for forensics - that these sequestered interlopers were " pale, tousled, and smelly " (Washington Post); " unshaven, " " weary, " yet still " upbeat " (New York Times); making the Harvard offices smell " increasingly funky, " munching on " vegan brownies, " doing yoga, and grooving to Bob Marley (Boston Globe). We also know that since " fresh underwear " and " school materials " weren't allowed inside the president's quarters (TomPaine.com), Harvard Yard became a crusty, stinky neo-hippie stomping ground, à la the parking-lot scene outside a Phish concert. Even after students settled with the administration (they agreed to the formation of yet another committee to study the living-wage issue at Harvard; the adminstration agreed to revise its contracts with unions representing employees who make less than $10 an hour and make some raises retroactive to May 1), we learned that students exited the building " pale, their hair tousled, and slightly pungent " (Boston Globe).

All but ignored throughout the Harvard hoopla is the fact that its Cambridge campus was not the only Boston-area site featuring a '60s-style sit-in over the past month. Across the river, a smaller contingent of Northeastern students has been camping out since April 12 on the floors and couches of the John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, a campus cultural center that Northeastern wants to raze (see " Students Keep On Keepin' On, " this page).

The folks at Northeastern haven't received quite the international fanfare, celebrity support, or press coverage of their Harvard counterparts. Although they occupied their building before the Crimson students took theirs, they haven't been treated to armies of shaggy boom mikes, missives from Rage Against the Machine, or phone calls from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Nor have there been any interviews with CNN anchors lobbing lead-balloon knee-slappers like " I guess you guys are like the folks in that Snickers commercial, 'not going anywhere for a while.' "

" We haven't been completely ignored, " says sophomore Justin Brown, a management-information-systems major who's been sleeping on the floor of the institute since April 12. " For the first week or week and a half, local television stations and papers were down here a lot. " Yet, after 20-plus days and counting, nobody's writing about what they're eating ( " delicious lasagna, chicken, and rice donated by members of the community, " Brown says) or what slogans grace their signs (A BUILDING IS NOT JUST A BUILDING).

So why is it that New Zealanders know about the laptops and cell phones of Harvard's squatters (New Zealand Herald), yet most of Boston is unaware that Northeastern students are also staging a protest? Is it the way the word " plutocracy " rolls off an Ivy League tongue? Is it the Survivor 2 jury member who traipsed around Harvard's campus? Is it that many of these Crimson kids are so-o-o-o cuckoo for curricula that they tried to sneak Derrida's Speech and Perception into the hall via a box of Lucky Charms?

Obviously, much of the attention paid to the hubbub at Harvard flows from its prestige, high profile, and indisputable wealth. And to be fair, the causes at Harvard and Northeastern aren't identical - or even comparable: low-paid university employees' feeding their families versus the relocation of a historically and socially significant cultural center. But when you have a Harvard Divinity student quoted in the New York Times as saying, " I don't feel right going home at night knowing that the people cleaning up after us and preparing our food aren't getting paid enough, " the phrase " cleaning up after us " sticks in your throat like a fishbone, making you wonder if this is more about practicing philanthropy than creating community.

So has the world bestowed the title of hero on these scions of privilege because they supported a good cause - or because, by doing so, they acted out of character?

Who knows?

But one Northeastern student has a guess. " We support what they're doing over there, " says Brown, noting that they've intermittently corresponded with a handful of the Harvard protesters. " But I'd say it's a class thing. They've gotten more attention because, for the most part, the students at Harvard are white, wealthy, and prestigious. Over here, we're mostly working-class and black. " He adds, " See, reporters want the boom bam. "

Issue Date: May 10 - 17, 2001