Committee Suggests Smaller Council; Group to Represent Student Opinion

The Student Council Committee on Re-Organization will recommend establishment of a 21-member Harvard Council for Undergraduate Affairs to replace the present 32-member Council. The new Council will begin operations as soon as its constitution is approved by the old group and the student body.

According to the Committee's report, prepared for a Council meeting tonight, the main purpose of the new group is to represent student opinion and make it an audible voice in Administrative decisions.

"Policy changes at Harvard are brought about by a representative group developing a good idea and presenting it with tact and clear reasoning. Failure and inability of past Councils to perform its function brought about this Committee and the writing of a new Constitution," the report states.

Similar observations on the place of the Council in the college community there offered by Dean Monro in a talk to the Committee last month.

The Committee suggests that the undergraduate Affairs Council be composed of one delegate elected at large from each House, one chosen by each House Committee, and three freshmen. The first provision will eliminate what Dean Monro last year called the "class anachronism" in Council representation, one member of each class elected in each House. The theory behind this move, the report says, is that allegiances are stronger toward Houses than Classes, and the new arrangement will more accurately reflect the divisions in the student body.

Nomination of one representative from each House Committee will for the first time recognize the Committee's growing role in undergraduate life the report says.

In addition to changing the name of the Council, "to avoid the implication that it is a student governing body," the Committee will suggest changing the titles of the two top officers from President and Vice-President to Chairman and vice-Chairman.

The latter change is the result of alleged abuses of the title last year by former President Howard J. Phillips '62. The Council at that time defeated a censure resolution directed at Phillips, but voted to "strongly disapprove" of his conduct.

The main work of the proposed new Council will be done through five permanent standing committees. The Committee on Educational Policy, which last year issued a report on the Sophomore Standing program, will be retained, and a new Committee for course Re-evaluation added. The purpose of the second committee is to provide "a continuous audit of course instruction and content," the report states.

The others are the Combined Charities Committee, which will coordinate the Council's chief annual service project; the National Student Association Committee; and an Elections Committee.