Republicans to Debate ROTC If CHUL Affirms Referendum

The Harvard Young Republican Club will discuss whether to take a stand on the proposed ROTC referendum if the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life votes Tuesday to conduct the college-wide survey, the Club's president said last night.

Wallace L. Schwartz '74 said that the Club's executive board would oppose any referendum similar to that suggested by the New American Movement (NAM).

"If NAM thinks they can run a referendum just to see if ROTC should come back as merely an extracurricular activity, I think that's a violation of civil rights," Schwartz said. "We could call for a referendum on SDS, but that would be ridiculous."

A NAM spokesman said last night that the organization will issue the exact wording of the petition which will be presented to CHUL. NAM's petition for a referendum, signed by 2500 students last week, requested a student vote on "the return of ROTC to the Harvard campus."

A two-thirds vote of the Republican Club's 14 executives is required for approval of any official stand, Schwartz said. The entire organization can also by a simple majority establish the Club's position, he added, but the next meeting of the entire Club is scheduled for the end of the month.

During the Club's introductory meeting last night, the Republican's campus action director, Steven J. Chapman '76, said to an audience of about 90 students that ROTC is "a possible issue, but I don't know what role we would play in that, if any."

Schwartz commented later that "thanks to President Bok the anti-ROTC people have had a good time raising what was dead issue on campus." He added that the Club "might decide to do something or to do nothing" about ROTC.

The Club's membership director said at one point, "We will be taking a trip down to our favorite laundry bank this year in Mexico." Earlier Schwartz admitted that the Club members going to Washington next spring would, "strangely enough, be seeing many new faces down there."