In a new twist in the saga of embattled Harvard President Lawrence Summers, the Harvard College Undergraduate Council has taken their opposition a step further.
In an unexpected show of solidarity for those who feel the president's comments about women's "innate" intellectual capacities were wrong, the UC has voted to change the university's symbolic color from the classic crimson to a lighter shade of pink.
When asked what good this action would accomplish, UC member F. Livingston Bosworth '06 said, "we wanted to do something to show our support for women, and everybody knows that pink is the girliest color out there."
Harvard undergraduates seem to be enthusiastic. R. Ellis Cauffield '07 said "this is absolutely a great idea. I mean, now I can wear the same pink polo shirts with the collar up I'd wear anyway, and look like I'm showing school spirit!"
Not all former Crimson faithful are so happy about the change. Alumnus M. Montgomery Ferguson '58 feels that using pink as the school color damages the school's prestige.
"Now all the fellows at the yacht club will think I'm a damn queer when I wear my Harvard cap!" Ferguson ranted. "Goddamn women, screwing everything up! Cooking and cleaning, that's all they're good for."
Harvard professor of Anglo-American studies P. Xavier Schubert agreed. "I really can see no reason to change the colors. Larry was probably right anyway. In any case, if we had to pick new colors for Harvard, I'd suggest white."
There doesn't seem to be any major reaction from other Ivy League schools. When informed of the change and asked to comment, Yale President Rick Levin said, "They did WHAT?" and started laughing hysterically. He gave no further comment.
The Harvard athletics department has already started preparing for the change, to become effective this fall. New uniforms have already been ordered featuring the school's new mascot, the Lavender.
"This won't effect us in any way at all," athletics director R. L. Scalise said. "A bunch of the guys have come to me saying that it makes them look girly, but I disagree. Columbia has had powder-blue uniforms for years now, and look how well they're doing. Maybe this'll get our men to play up to their level."
The school's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, has immediately jumped on board with the plan, announcing that as of next week they will change their name to the Lavender.
"We'd been wanting to change our name to a better color for a while now, so this gives us a good excuse to do it without looking like losers," Managing Editor S. M. Marks '06 said. "This is off the record, right?"
It is still unknown whether Penn will respond to the change. Tradition holds that Penn's school colors are based on Harvard and Yale's, so many expect Penn will soon be the Pink and Blue.
When asked for comment, President Amy Gutmann responded, "Huh? That's dumb."
Lawrence Summers himself weighed in on the issue, stating that "there are without a doubt innate differences between colors."
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