Steiner Calls for Faculty Compliance

Daniel Steiner '54, the University's general counsel, warned the Faculty yesterday not to look for "ways to get around" the provisions of the newly-amended law that gives students access to their educational files.

Steiner made the comment at a regular Faculty meeting after several Faculty members began to suggest ways of keeping letters of recommendation confidential.

During his report on recent revisions in the files law, Steiner said that lobbyists from several educational institutions including Harvard had "effected serious changes in the legislation," and added that the law is now in a form that Harvard can live with.

Dean Rosovsky said at the meeting that the files law will burden the Faculty with "just another enormous expense" because of the administrative costs of implementing the act.

Steiner announced yesterday that he has drafted a new form that students will have to sign to waive the right of access to a particular letter.

Under the provisions of the amended files law students can agree in advance to keep the contents of a letter confidential.

Although the law specifically states that educational institutions cannot use a student's decision to waive access as a criterion in the admissions process, Steiner said yesterday the file law's legislative history suggests that schools are allowed to judge a student's character by considering whether or not recommendation letters are kept confidential.

Steiner also said that nothing in the new law compels a professor to write letters of recommendation--which means that a Faculty member can refuse to write a recommendation for a student who refuse to sign a waiver.

Anthony Arlotto, senior tutor of Winthrop House and a member of the Faculty's ad hoc committee on the files law, said at the meeting that reports written on students by their tutors "will probably be less candid now."

Arlotto also raised the possibility that certain parts of students' files, including the confidential letter solicited from parents of incoming freshmen, may have to be destroyed because of the access law.

During his presentation yesterday, Steiner said that students will now have to sign special consent forms in order for Faculty members to write letters of recommendation.

The mandatory consent forms will allow information from a student's file to be used in recommendation letters.