Proposed Dowling Review Questioned

The Student Assembly last night voted in favor of a motion urging that a constitution for the new student government proposed in the Dowling report "be drawn up strictly by students, consulting with the administration when appropriate."

The motion, sponsored by Ross Boylan '81-3, head of the internal affairs subcommittee of the assembly, came in response to a decision by Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, to chair a committee that would draft a constitution based on the Dowling committee report, which was released last week.

Epps said Friday he planned to head a committee including student representatives from the Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life and the Student Assembly.

The assembly's motion also recommends including members of Third World organizations, the Radcliffe Union of Students, House committees and any other undergraduate student groups in continuing discussion of the Dowling report.

Boylan said last night that the proposed student council constitution is strictly a student matter and that administrators should not be involved in the next step of its construction.

Dean Fox, who asked Epps to chair the committee, said all questions about the assembly's motion should be directed to Epps, but Epps declined comment on the Student Assembly motion.

Joseph McDonough '81, a member of the Dowling committee, said last night he supported the spirit of the motion, but was against limiting the domain of students' power through a written statement.

"Students should never say what they have power over. They should start acting until they [the administration] tell us to stop," McDonough added.

McDonough said that students should explore the possibilities already included in the report as a more productive way to increase their power.

In other business, Henry C. Park '84, a member of the Harvard Committee on El Salvador, and Richard W. Painter '84,"a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Democratic Club, charged the Student Assembly last night with "copping out" by failing to support a motion urging the assembly to apologize to the Committee on El Salvador.

The assembly decided instead to vote in favor of a motion supperting the committee's El Salvador forum on Friday. However, the assembly refused to take a "political stand" on the El Salvador issue by supporting the committee's upcoming candlelight march.

The assembly decided last week to table a motion endorsing the committee's candlelight march until the opinion of the student body could be assessed.

Painter said that the assembly did not give the El Salvador issue enough time but tried to "railroad a motion through."

"They gave the motion ten minutes when they had spent two and a half hours discussing kiosks," Painter said.

Victor C. Freeman '84, who sponsored the motion which passed, said that the assembly chose not to take a political stand because the student body has no unified opinion.

The results of a poll taken in the Union in which only 24 of 200 people responded proves that most people are confused about the issue, Freeman said.

Calling Freeman's resolution "a wimp motion." Park said that the assembly failed to adequately inform itself on the issue.

Park also said that Freeman's poll was "biased" and shows that the majority of the student body is against U.S. aid to El Salvador