Dietz Will Force His Nominations On Coop Today

The Coop will hold its annual membership meeting in Harvard Hall 1 to 5 p.m. today in order to elect its 19-man Board of Directors. But for the first time in the Coop's history, the results of the elections cannot be guessed in advance.

Sheldon Dietz '41 has nominated six Harvard and M.I.T. professors of Architecture and Design to oppose the official slate, all of whom are incumbents. Five of Dietz's nominees have asked that their names be withdrawn from consideration. The sixth, Benjamin Thompson, Chairman of the School of Design, was not available for comment. All the names will still be presented to the meeting, however, since Coop by-laws make no provision for the withdrawal of nominees.

If ten per cent of the card-carrying students and officers of the University attend the meeting, directors will be elected by a popular vote. Only Harvard students-no Cliffies-can vote. If a quorum is not achieved, the Coop's ten stockholders will chose the directors, and undoubtedly reject Dietz's candidates. John G. Merrill, general manager of the Coop, has estimated a quorum to be 1000 voters.

If more than 200 people arrive at the meeting, it will be moved immediately to the larger Cambridge High and Latin School Auditorium, located at the corner of Irving and Broadway Streets.

Dietz did not notify his candidates in advance of their nomination, he said, because he doubted they could then remain independent in his struggle with the Coop. Most of the surprised candidates explained that they were too busy to accept a directorship.

Dietz has been attempting to get the Zoning Board of Appeals to revoke the building permit for the Coop's book annex, now under construction above the old textbook annex. If successful, he said he thought his candidates would find a better design for the annex and any further Coop construction.

The Coop, on the other hand, maintains that it does not intend to expand further once the textbook annex is completed, and says that radically modifying existing plans for the annex would be prohibitively expensive.