RUS Legislative Body Rejects CHUL Plan to Abolish Fee

In a informal vote Monday night, the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) legislature rejected a Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) recommendation that the University abolish term-bill funding of RUS.

CHUL recommended last May that the University phase out the term-bill funding of RUS over three years. Beginning last semester, Radcliffe students have had the option of requesting a refund of the $5 fee.

RUS legislators opposed the recommendation until an effective and reliable alternative method of funding can be found for the organization.

Dean Rosovsky has to submit the CHUL proposal to the governing boards of Harvard and Radcliffe at their next meeting. Susan H. Goldstein '80, president of RUS, said she has written Bok and believes he will call a meeting of the boards later this spring--the first since CHUL passed the recommendation.

Neither Horner nor Bok could be reached for comment yesterday. Horner said Monday, however, that "As long as the students want the fees, the Board of Trustees will back it up."

Joan Feigenbaum '80, an RUS representative, said Monday that RUS is "barely hurting anybody by taking $5 and then we do a lot of good things." The union, she noted, gives grants for students' research projects and theses.

Although many campus organizations RUS helps finance do not depend solely on RUS for money, Goldstein said, Seventh Sister, Radcliffe's monthly journal, would probably fold without the group's support.

RUS plans to survey students this week to determine how they feel about the term bill fee, and how they perceive RUS's future as a representative organization, Margaret D. Ziegler '81, RUS representative to the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, said Monday.

"The purpose is to find out what kind of organization women at Harvard want," Ziegler added.

"RUS funding is necessary for our existence," Trisha G. Butler '80, treasurer of the Association of Black Radcliffe Women (ABRW), said last night, adding that without RUS funding ABRW would have to resort to fundraising or charging dues.