Atrocities and Activism

The twinkling light of the holiday season has been ebbed away by the swirling dark of the January sea

:: end melodrama::

A warm San Diego break and I find myself back in Boston, ice skating to school (well, not literally, but I did get passed by a man on cross country skis a few days ago) and trying to ward off the cold in my below freezing house (this, unfortunately, is not melodrama, as i returned from California to a house below 30 degrees F, frozen pipes, and an icicle dripping off of the faucet of our kitchen sink!) Thankfully, an electric blanket was among the gifts I received this Christmas, so I am managing to survive our house's version of winter camping.


Classes have started again, and the winter-term finds us (among other things) planning out the research/studies we will complete. Before the break, I had solidified plans to take an intensive Spanish course in Boston and then travel to El Salvador where I would continue Spanish training, and onto Guatemala, where I would work in a rural clinic sponsored by the Harvard community. Dastardly, sometime in December the HMS administration decided to cut funding for the Boston based medical Spanish classes.

More-so than the anxiety created by needing to come up with a new fundable project fast, I am distressed by the priorities of our administration. Harvard is an institution with many personalities: there are (for sure) voices among the faculty who advocate the importance of services and skill sets to benefit the under served, yet there are (seemingly) a multitude more who believe that the above is the first cargo to be thrown overboard during a storm. And tragically, they control the purse strings.

In response, I took on my first ever "stick it to the man" project. I spent yesterday crafting a petition about the issue of funding cuts, and the absolute necessity for funding re-distribution. I had a few of my liberal arts friends check it for spelling, grammar, and cuss words, before sending it out to my class list serve. About 1/3 of the class has signed it only 5 hours after my having sent it to them.

Now the question is, what do I do with it?

(You'd think I would have had a plan, but I'm new at this). I think I will go to the Dean of Student Affairs, first. I am sure it will be plainly evident that I have no experience in this and no idea what I am doing, but somehow I am certain that I should be doing this. If we don't emphasize the importance of Clinicians learning the language of their patients now, then when? I have browsed through our curriculum and (shockingly) it does not slow down.

Maybe I have too high of standards set for Harvard, but I don't think so. Even with the financial crisis this institution has a crap-top of money (scientifically speaking) and I will give Spanish it's due defense.