Publication Rules Come Before Council Monday

The Student Council will vote Monday, on proposed rules for undergraduate publications. The Council ordered new regulations to be drawn up after the University refused to recognize the now defunct New Student last spring.

Main feature of the new rules is the provision for two degrees of recognition. Under this provision, publications which in addition to being recognized wish to use "Harvard" in their title must meet additional requirements.

The committee which formulated the rules includes Frederic D. Houghteling '50, Robert L. Fischelis '50, Edward F. Burke '50, and Robert K. Bingham '48.

The Council set up the group after its recommendation that the HYD-sponsored New Student be recognized was flatly rejected by the Faculty Committee on Student Activities. At that time, Dean Bender said "no publication should be recognized or allowed to use the Harvard name unless it is in fact a Harvard student publication."

The proposed new rules state that "the basic criterion is that the publication must be a Harvard student enterprise." The editors must be Harvard students, and policy control is "to be exercised in accordance with their free decisions." Magazines without "Harvard" in their titles do not have to be financed within the Harvard community, nor does a majority of their circulation have to be in Harvard.

Bender Explains Stand

Bender explained last spring that the "committee was convinced that The New Student was not a bona fide Harvard publication....It was largely written by and for people who were not Harvard students and financed outside the University to a considerable extent."

As for the magazine's policy, the Dean told the Council that when an organization such as the HYD is connected with a nationwide group, a decision as to who determines policy is difficult if not impossible.

If the Dean's Office had been working under the proposed rules last spring, the New Student would have been recognized had the editors proved it was really the independent publication of a Harvard group, and was not controlled by the national organization.