STUDENT POLS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In recent weeks, the problem of student participation in the decision-making processes of the University has become a major issue. Listening to the members of the various organizations involved, including HUC, HPC, SFAC, and HFC, I have come to believe that major changes are necessary in the student organizations before there can be any discussion of student participation in the decisions of the University.

The members of the student organizations are immensely concerned with the unrepresentative nature of University decision making. They claim that they intend to give the students a voice in the decisions that affect their life and work in the University. But I seriously question how the members of these organizations can claim to represent the students in their own committees, much less before the Faculty or the administration. . . . The sight of a prominent HUC member complaining that "there is no way to become a big man on campus" certainly makes one wonder how much his desires for student representation on the Faculty is motivated by the desire for a larger audience. Hearing a SFAC delegate say that "even if we get [departmental] review boards, the average student won't use them, only people like you [an HPC rep] and me," makes me wonder if we need departmental review boards or SFAC for that matter.

The people who involve themselves in student government organizations tend, in my very personal opinion, to be vain, egotistical and close-minded. Many of them view participation in student politics as an excellent training ground for future endeavors on a somewhat larger scale. As long as the student organizations were looked upon as worthless extracurricular activities, this was harmless. But now that the members have managed to convince many people that they should play an important role in the University, their own presence is dangerous and must end.

Unfortunately, we are left with the problem of selecting delegates. I personally, and quite seriously, urge that in the future all such delegates be chosen by the simplest and most democratic means, lot. The recent CRIMSON article on H-R X mentioned that this was the method used to select their Ministers of Information; it did not mention that this is an old and honorable method of choosing leaders, having been practiced by the ancient Greeks. Who can doubt that ten Harvard students chosen at random would not be superior to our present HUC? John W. Gorman '72