Sheldon Dietz Plots Harvard Coop d'Etat

For the first time in the Coop's 82-year history, the society's slate of directors faces an opposition.

Sheldon Dietz '41, a Cambridge businessman, has submitted nominating papers for six directors. Four of them are professors at Harvard, and two at M.I.T. They are running against six Harvard officers nominated by the Coop's stockholders.

"I'm not fighting the coop," Dietz stated last night in a telephone interview from Warren, R.I., "I think the Coop's directors have they should have the benefit of some expert aesthetic advice in architecture and city planning."

Three of the nominees he supports are professors of Architecture, two are professors of Regional Planning, and one a professor of Fine Arts.

In the past Dietz has expressed strong dissatisfaction with Coop's plans for a new four-story book annex on Palmer Street. Work on the $2 million project has already begun, and the first two floors of the building should be ready by Jan. 1, 1966.

The new nominees are Charles W. Eliot '20, professor of City and Regional Planning; Gregory Kepes, professor of Architecture at M.I.T.; Kevin Lynch, professor of City and Regional Planning at M.I.T.; Jose Luis Sert, professor of Architecture and Dean of the Faculty of Design; Seymour Slive, professor of Fine Arts; and Benjamin Thompson, Chairman of the School of Design.

Apparently no one had bothered to inform the nominees of their nomination. Professor Slive, when he learned of his nomination, said, "I've been out of town for a couple of days. I really don't know what it's all about. What does a director do anyway?"

Dean Sert turned down his nomination, saying, "I'm much too busy. I have no time for that." Professor Eliot refused to comment at all, and Professors Kepes, Lynch, and Thompson could not be reached last night.

These nominees, and the stockholders' slate of directors, will be presented at the Coop's annual membership meeting, next Wednesday at 5 p.m. In Harvard Hall. Before an election can be held, however, ten per cent of the Coop's voting members must attend the meeting. The voting membership is restricted to' students and officers of the University.

According to Austin W. Scott, vice president and general counsel of the Coop, the society has over 3000 voting members. And at past metings, "only a few members, maybe 20, have shown up" said Scott.'

If a quorum of voting members is not present the ten stockholders elect the directors.

Dietz denied any intention of trying to muster the necessary 300 voting members by next Wednesday. But he expressed disappointment at Harvard students' disinterest in the Coop's affffairs.

"The Coop is not actually a cooperative," claimed Dietz. "It's an oligarchy of the stockholders. They've never even tried to find out what the Harvard student body thinks. It's just a shame that students here are more interested in a national election than an election that they really can influence."