Harvard Headmaster Woos Foes of School Merger

The headmaster of a prestigious boys school Friday pleaded the case for a proposed merger with the sometimes hostile students of an equally regarded girls’ school, arguing that uniting would be like opening the Berlin Wall.

Thomas C. Hudnut, headmaster of Harvard School in Studio City, spoke to an assembly at the Westlake School for girls, some of whom sported yellow “break the engagement “ buttons.

The girls of the Holmby Hills high school, divided between supporters and opponents of the merger, cheered and jeered Hudnut’s appeal.

Taking an oratorical cue from the major headline of the day, Hudnut quoted West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on the opening of the Berlin Wall: “We are ready to build a new nation, and we belong together.”

“This is an unparalleled opportunity for people to collaborate,” Hudnut said.

Many Westlake parents reacted with alarm to the announcement in October that the schools would merge, with Harvard taking two-thirds of the seats on the new school’s Board of Trustees.

Westlake parents who oppose the merger succeeded in getting a final vote on the merger by the school’s trustees postponed until late November, while the parents lobby to prevent it.

Parents have embarked on a fund-raising campaign to show the Westlake trustees that the school would be economically viable even if Harvard went coeducational without it--a chief fear of the Westlake trustees who favor the merger.

A group of unidentified donors has pledged $1 million to keep the school afloat, said Rod Berle, one of the Westlake trustees, and parents have raised $280,000 in the last two weeks. The money is being held in a trust account and will be made available only if Westlake remains a girls’ school, said parent David Higgins.

Not all of Westlake’s financial supporters oppose the merger. The school’s biggest contributor, philanthropist Helen Bing, supports it.

Objections to the merger range from the argument that girls do better academically and more readily develop leadership potential in a single-sex school, to an aversion to having Westlake folded into a school that comes under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Diocese.

Opponents of the merger contend that the Episcopal link would be unacceptable to Westlake’s many Jewish students. Supporters respond that Harvard has many Jewish students, and the combined school would not have the character of a specific church and could add chaplains from non-Episcopal religions.

Hudnut, who would be the headmaster of the new school, was queried by Westlake students on topics such as religion and sexism.

A student questioner referred to sexism among the male students of Harvard, drawing cheers from the other girls. Hudnut, reacting to the audience’s apparent presumption that Harvard boys are sexist, replied: “Wasn’t that a sexist response?”

Hudnut added, “I would hope to be educable on the subject.”

The Harvard headmaster’s appearance on the Holmby Hills campus was opposed by parents who are against the merger. They described it as an attempt to manipulate their daughters.

“I beseech you to disinvite Mr. Hudnut and leave our girls out of this manipulation,” Westlake parent Marc Palley said to Westlake Headmaster Nathan Reynolds at a parent meeting Thursday night.

The invitation was not revoked, however. Hudnut said later that he viewed his appearance as a step toward healing the divisions among Westlake students and parents.

“There was good spirit there and a lot of concern and a lot of positive interest in their school. I enjoyed it enormously,” Hudnut said.

A Westlake student’s mother, Anette Klingman, paraded through the auditorium and across the stage during Hudnut’s appearance, with faculty members chasing her, carrying a sign that read: “Westlake merger isn’t a done deal. It’s attempted rape.”

Faculty members escorted her out of the auditorium. Hudnut would not comment on the incident.

Many students said her actions offended girls on both sides of the merger debate, many of whom gathered around her later to protest. “We don’t want this woman to represent us,” one student said.

Parents leading opposition to the merger disavowed her tactics.

“This kind of behavior has no place in the dialogue, nor do assemblies like this using the children,” Higgins said.

“I think they’re being lied to, so I felt I had to do it,” Klingman said. “I’m sorry if they’re upset.”

The president of the Westlake Board of Trustees has said the merger is necessary because the quality of Westlake’s student body would be harmed if Harvard goes coeducational on its own, as it planned to do in a few years. The fear is that many girls who would otherwise choose Westlake would opt to attend Harvard instead, forcing Westlake to accept girls who now could not meet the academic requirements for admission.