Everyone's dumping on UC president Ryan Petersen for giving a speech at Drew Faust's inauguration that took a couple of mild shots at the Harvard College administration. Now the Crimson edit board joins in:

...the fiery speech that Undergraduate Council President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 delivered criticizing the College administration was inappropriate and wholly out of character with the spirit of the occasion. Charged with speaking on behalf of students at the College and all of the graduate schools, Petersen’s tactless rhetoric undermined the many legitimate points he made and rendered us embarrassed to be among the constituency that he purported to represent.

Embarrassed to be among the constituency that he purported to represent? That's a bit harsh, no?

If I may offer a word in Petersen's defense....

I love Harvard students, really I do. I had a fantastic time teaching them back when I was a TF, I learned a ton interviewing them for Harvard Rules, and hell, I even work for two of them. They're great guys, and I'm not just saying that so they'll give me a raise, though that's fine too. Harvard students are, to me, the most inspiring thing about the university, and there are many inspiring things about Harvard.

But there are times when the modern generation of Harvard students seems so conformist, so desperately afraid of rocking the boat, that one wants to shake them to see if they're really alive or if they're instead just some sort of Stepford student.

Heaven forbid that students protesting a heavy-handed and unresponsive administration do anything impolite or tactless. That would be nuts, right? Because in life, the best way to get ahead is to conform, play by the rules, suck up to your superiors, and toe the line. After all, you're all part of the same power establishment, right?

Harvard's presidential installation is on one level a celebration of the university, true. But on another level, it's a deeply political event, a coronation of sorts. It's about power, and it harnesses all the resources and heritage of the university to get everyone affected to buy in.

The Crimson editorial board has obviously drunk the Kool-Aid. The paper says he "implicitly rejected the mutual responsibility of the student citizenship he represented." I'm not so sure. Couldn't it be argued that part of the responsibility involved is to remind the Harvard administration that its students aren't just smiling suck-ups waiting for a pat on the head? That they are more than neatly dressed drones in capitalism's assembly line?

(But...oh no! There may be some bumps on the road to Wall Street. Disaster!)

Ryan Peterson threw a stick in the spokes of Harvard's best-laid plans. He reminded the community that students do have strong opinions and that some of them aren't afraid to express those opinions. He committed a political act during a political event.

More power to him, I'd say. Twenty years from now, I'd rather have a Crimson alum manifest that kind of we're not gonna take it attitude than the hush-hush, be good now posture of the Crimson's editorial board.