No Packet Racket

To The Editors of The Crimson:

The Phillips Brooks House Association Cabinet objects to recent implications in the Crimson that PBHA literature in past student registration packets was placed there without the consent of University officials. PBHA has been placing information in the envelopes for twenty years, and in every case permission had been granted. For administrators to suggest that we stuffed the envelopes behind their backs is to distort the facts.

The issue of student activity brochures in registration packages has arisen because of Dean Archie Epps' refusal to allow the Harvard-Radcliffe Gay Students Association to distribute an informational folder in the envelopes at spring registration. The H-RGSA request prompted Dean Epps to invoke what he claims is a long-standing prohibition against such distribution by student groups. However, this rule has rarely been cited, let alone enforced, when non-gay groups asked to make use of the packets. Indeed, the Women's Clearinghouse, the Student Assembly, Room 13, and other organizations have been allowed to insert folders.

If the rule did exist before, PBHA protests its selective enforcement against gays. If the rule did not exist before, we protest its creation as a means to justify keeping gay information out of the packet. Either way, we are skeptical of Dean Epps' assertion that he is merely attempting to maintain the purity of the registration envelope. Rather, by altering past practice only when gays asked to be included, he appears to be trying to prevent Harvard students from reading about the H-RGSA.

The recent proposal by CHUL to include a second envelope for student groups' information does not obscure the fact that it was H-RGSA's request that provided the impetus for a change in policy.

We hope that in the light of these facts, the administration will reconsider its newly stated policy. Phillips Brooks House Association Cabinet