RUS Opposes Recommendation To Eliminate Term Bill Fees

In today's meeting to discuss a proposal to phase out the mandatory term bill fee that finances the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) will face serious opposition from Susan L. Comstock '78, RUS president.

Comstock said last week "it would probably be difficult for RUS to solicit funding from other sources" should the proposal be implemented.

The proposal, submitted by a CHUL subcommittee on RUS funding, recommends that the University decrease the term bill fee from $5 to $3 next year, from $3 to $2 the following year, and abolish it the third year.

Currently the fee is directly figured into the term bill of each Radcliffe student. Students who object to the fee may request a refund by writing to the RUS.

Boudinot T. Atterbury '79, a member of the subcommittee that drew up the proposal, said last week that no other Harvard student organization's fees appear on the term bill. He added that despite the University's decision in 1972 to exempt RUS from that rule, RUS "is a student organization not so different from any other student organizations which aren't funded on the term bill."

President Horner said last week RUS is different from other student organizations. She said she was "intrigued" by the large number of visits and letters from students who are against the proposal. She added that 15 students visited her protesting the recommendation in two days.

Official Position

Should the recommendation pass CHUL, which is only an advisory board, it would then go to the Joint Policy Committee, composed of Radcliffe Board of Trustees and Harvard Corporation members. Horner, who said last week she was as yet undecided about the merits of the proposal, will present the official Radcliffe administration position to the committee today.

She said she would not make a decision on the recommendation until she reads a copy of it and hears from "those students whose lives will be affected by it."

CHUL will approve the recommendation, two CHUL members said last week.