8 Committees Carry Bulk of Council Work

Preliminary organization of the eight Student Council committees is just about complete.

Committees are the actual workhorses of the Council. They handle polls, conduct investigations, mull over their findings, and finally write detailed reports on the issue involved. They perform what Dean Bender has called the most important functions of the Council; deliberation and recommendation. Some of their proposals have in the words of the Dean, been "extraordinarily significant."

Others have not been so startling or dramatic, but every Council report is carefully considered, and is based on hours of research done by people both in and outside of the Council.

Perhaps the most difficult problem of a committee head is to decide what issues his group will investigate during the year. Usually, problems can be divided into two classifications--the more immediate "front-page" grievances and long-range problems of policy that may require as much as several year's work.

Steering Committees Operate

Once an investigation is started, the responsibility for how it is carried out is not relegated to one man alone. A steering committee is formed, and when the report is completed it is submitted to the full Council for approval.

The Student Welfare Committee, co-chaired by Charles R. Brynteson '50 and David L. McMurtie '50 will handle the Council's two most extensive projects of the year.

First of these is a report on "student finance and employment." The committee will attempt to analyze trends of the past 20 years in considering such questions as the effect of employment on student's work, the effect of tuition cost rises and the usefulness of the Student Employment Office. Eventually, the committee hopes to submit recommendations for at least the next five years.

"Student Rights" Discussed

The other main project, undertaken at the request of Dean Bender is a statement of "student rights." Rights and responsibilities of students and organizations will be discussed, as well as several specific conditions suggested by the Dean. Among these are what action taken if an undergraduate magazine should publish articles excessively and offensively obscene.

Other investigations facing the committee involve distribution of football tickets and the quality of food served, especially in the Union. These last two problems arise perennially, but some definite and effective decisions may be made this year.

Section Teaching a Problem

Section teaching is in for a very thorough going-over from the Educational Committee. The investigations will probably be focused on the Romance Languages Department. Hale H. Knight '50 and Herbert J. Spiro '50 are co-chairmen.

The committee also intends to plump for expansion of tutorial wherever practical, and will attempt by various publicity devices to tell the story of a Harvard education to headmasters and their schools all over the country. The School committees of the various Harvard Clubs will aid in this project.

Complete recommendations on Dean Watson's recent report on extra-curricula ractivities will be handled by the extra-curricular activities committee chaired by Edward L. Foote Jr. '51.

Activities Studied

Foote's group will also try to account for the lack of undergraduate interest in extra-curricular activities. Attempts to get more men absorbed in non-course work have always been a major Council project and influences practically every Council report.

The five other Council committees are also planing probes of one sort or another; in fact there are 18 different projects definitely on committee agendas.

A new lure planned by the Council to get more good men interested in committee work is a Certificate of Merit to be awarded to those few men, who, in the Council's opinion, have done the most outstanding and loyal job in their respective committees.