Harvard has descended into the present-tense grime of American culture. And that is quite sad. It simply should not be. Nevertheless, according to the news, slime and grime have taken over the ivy-decked buildings for the sake of degradation's gods and goddesses.

Could the slide downward have begun some years ago when Harvard's Chaplain came "out of the closet," hailed as a sex hero by those of like persuasion?

So in present-tense we have "Gay Pride Week" maximized at Harvard University.

"The event, hosted by the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance on campus, began with open-mic performances that included a story entitled 'My First Time' about scandalous escapades with a bisexual male model in Lebanon," the Harvard Crimson campus newspaper reported.

"The BGLTSA will show 'Toilet Training,' a documentary about 'discrimination linked to gender-segregated bathrooms.' The audience also will hear about findings from a study on bathroom access on and near campus.

"The BGLTSA's 'thorough investigation' of Harvard buildings over the past few months shows the school could be more accommodating for transgendered students by creating more gender-neutral bathrooms, the Crimson said.

"'For transgendered people, going to a specific bathroom can be a very stigmatizing experience,' said BGLTSA publicity chairman Adam P. Schneider, who also is a Crimson editor.

"Schneider said creation of gender-neutral bathrooms would be 'an easy thing to keep under consideration' as Harvard makes plans to construct a new campus."

And of course there's more--gross, that is, not fit to print in this article.

As a Christian, all I can cry out is this: "My God, what in heaven's name has happened to Harvard University? In every way it has surely given up its rights to academic heights, trading its soul--whatever one would define that--for a bowl of soured milk."

When I was at Harvard, I walked across Harvard Yard with a sense of awe. When passing John Harvard's form high and lifted up, it was some respected personage to take in with a whisper and extended gaze.

When I walked into Harvard Divinity School chapel, it was a time to meditate, settling into the peace that warmed those winter walls. Though I did not agree with much that was taught me there, I could still claim the chapel's holy environs as my theologically conservative space as well as a room likewise inhabited by those into liberalism's lure.

In the Divinity School's Braun Room, we ministerial students were privileged to listen to speaker after speaker--guests who were invited for a day or so, giving forth their perspectives on religion or politics or both. Dr. Samuel Miller, Dean, in his usual stately posture, introduced us to some of the "names" of that time.

Early in the morning, when attending prayers in Harvard's grand Memorial Church, I pinched myself to realize that I was actually seated in the sanctuary where some of America's greats had preached. Further, it was a hallowed place to feed my soul with hymns and petitions.

What a marvelous time it was. We could hear Reinhold Neihbuhr or Billy Graham giving forth their take on the divine. Or we could simply sit beneath a spreading tree branch, pondering a philosophical assignment. On an afternoon I could wander into a lecture hall--packed to the walls with students seated on the windowsills--to hear Paul Tillich expound on whatever he wanted to expound on. Whatever the subject, the place would always hold wall-to-wall listeners.

Traffic traffic traffic. Expansive lawns. Mammoth buildings. Hideaway gardens. Scholastically intent youths from all over the world. Eateries off campus. Violinists playing their fare on Cambridge streets, caps on the pavement for a bit of cash. Newspapers from everywhere. Neighborhood churches encircling the historic campus. Museums. Art.

But now. Homosexual. Bisexual. Transgender. Troilet training. Does this present degradation have to take place at Harvard?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.