The Tide Is Turning

The battle over the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) heated up this week as three Houses decided to boycott the CRR and another decided to hold a referendum on continuing the boycott.

The Dunster House committee voted Monday night not to nominate student representatives to the CRR, and sent a letter to all House committee chairmen calling for a meeting to draft proposals to reform the CRR.

Thursday night, a Mather House ad hoc committee also voted to boycott the CRR. Mather students had voted in a referendum last month to begin the process of nominating students to the CRR. Under rules set up by the Faculty, the selection by lot of that 11-member panel was the first step in the nomination process, although the panel did have the option of not nominating any students at all.

And yesterday, Quincy House voted 100-67 in a referendum not to nominate students to the CRR. Tuesday night, the Quincy House committee voted to begin the nomination process, but a petition signed by 87 Quincy students forced the referendum.

Meanwhile, the Winthrop House committee voted Monday to hold a House referendum next Wednesday on the CRR boycott.

After the Dunster House committee voted to boycott the CRR, it decided to organize a meeting to try to come up with proposals to reform the CRR.

The House committee asked the other House committees to send two representatives each to a meeting next Tuesday night. Then they hope to draft proposals that can be submitted to the Faculty, because changes in the CRR's structure and procedures can only be made by Faculty vote.

Previous attempts to get the Faculty to approve student-initiated proposals to change the CRR have failed.

The mood of the Faculty and the tone of its meetings has changed, however, since it first established the CRR in 1969. It is still unclear whether the Faculty's attitude toward disciplining student protesters has changed enough for them to approve any substantial changes in the CRR.