The Time Is Now

CITING THE COMPLEXITY of the issues involved in its review of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR), a Faculty of Arts and Sciences group recently pushed back its timetable for reforming the controversial disciplinary body. At least for the remainder of the year, students charged with infringing on the rights of others will be judged--and perhaps punished--by a disciplinary body which has drawn fire from all segments of the community.

Reconciling individual freedoms and Harvard's need to maintain order poses intimidating problems. But the faculty must do more than mull over those problems while hiding behind a repugnant pseudo-judiciary body like the CRR.

The faculty would have been irresponsible had it avoided confronting the complexities of the CRR in order to quickly develop an alternative. In delaying its schedule for reform, however, the faculty acted just as irresponsibly, condemning students to suffer the judgments of an arbitrary and unfair disciplinarian.

In the wake of controversial disciplinary proceedings, critics charge that Harvard's interest in those who make this a vital community ends at Byerly Hall. Last week the university could have answered those critics. Knowing that it might call on the CRR when divestment protests heat up this spring, the faculty could have committed itself to bringing Harvard reality into line with Harvard rhetoric. It could have decided to reform--or scrap--the CRR before it limits freedom and attests to the university's hypocrisy. Instead, the faculty balked.

In theory the CRR has six undergraduate members, but students--claiming the body prosecutes them for their political beliefs--have boycotted the 17-year-old committee. No student has sat on a CRR which heard a case.

Tacitly, by the tone and scope of its review this fall, the faculty endorsed the students' assessment of the CRR. It now remains for faculty members to decide how to reorganize their 13-member judiciary committee.

We hope they are able to do so soon, before the CRR again quashes freedom of scuttles academic futures.