PBH Petitions for Merger With 'Cliffe Organization

The Phillips Brooks House Cabinet has voted to petition for merger with the Radcliffe Volunteer Service Organization, it was disclosed yesterday.

Unlike any other student organization, PBH may be able to bypass the Committee on Student Activities in getting permission to allow full Radcliffe membership. John G. Pittenger '51, alumni secretary of PBH, said that Dean Watson's unofficial opinion was that approval of the proposal by the PBH Committee and PBH Association would be sufficient. Rev. George A. Buttrick heads both groups.

Should the Committee on Student Activities oppose mergers with Radcliffe in principle, PBH could still conceivably become a joint Harvard-Radcliffe organization. However, both Pittenger and William W. Freehling '58, president of PBH, considered this extremely unlikely.

Furthermore, PBH Committee and Association approval will not guarantee approval by the Radcliffe faculty, and Pittenger anticipated that Brooks House might have to change its constitution to guarantee that Radcliffe girls would not be "submerged" in the organization.

Full 'Cliffe Membership

The proposal passed by the PBH Cabinet was that integration with Radcliffe would make Brooks House "more effective." It was passed with only one dissenting vote, and Freehling has appointed a committee to draft a petition requesting full Radcliffe membership. The petition will be presented to the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Stimulus for the proposal came primarily from the Radcliffe Volunteer Service Organization, Pittenger asserted. Some Brooks House committees, such as the General Hospitals Committee, are--in fact, if not in theory--integrated. At the other extreme, the RVSO committee on Reading to the Blind has no Harvard equivalent.

In the case of similar Harvard and Radcliffe committees, however, too often the Harvard chairman has "had charge of the joint planning program," whereas the Radcliffe girls "feel that they are heads of a paper organization," Pittenger continued.

Freehling, too, was in favor of giving Radcliffe members more responsibility.