PBH Plans Overhaul of Internal Structure

The Phillips Brooks House (PBH) cabinet Sunday night considered the possibilities and implications of a fundamental change in its corporate structure.

Debate focused on whether the public service organization--currently a decentralized confederation of committee leaders--should relinquish most of its power to a smaller committee composed of students, Harvard officials and community leaders.

Currently, one to two representatives from each of PBH's 42 committees serves on the organization's executive board. In any given year, the board's size ranges "anywhere from 42 to 150 people," said PBH President Lovita T. Tandy '92.

Tandy chairs the executive board's steering committee, a group of officers composed of and elected by cabinet members.

Need for Change

In a straw poll taken at Sunday's meeting, nearly all voting cabinet members agreed that the corporate structure of PBH needs to change.

Tandy said in an interview that a small handful of people already does most of the work at PBH, so creating a smaller executive board would only make this arrangement official.

And a governing board whose membership is not limited to students will help PBH foster better relations with city and faculty leaders and handle liabilty concerns more effectively, steering committee member Jon D.F. Zinman '93 said in an interview before the meeting.

"As it now stands, if one committee should be unfortunate enough to accidentally run over someone in a PBH van, everyone on the cabinet can technically get sued," he said.

Some students, however, were less enthusiastic about the proposal. One cabinet member, Philip Seo '93, warned his colleagues too much University control could turn PBH into "another HAND program."

Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND), administered independently through each of the houses, is a community-service organization created by former President Derek C. Bok as an alternative to PBH.

Some cabinet members also wondered if a revamped PBH executive board would have enough contact with the student-run programs to make informed decisions for the organization.

"If this cabinet has trouble keeping informed on what's going on at PBH, how will a cabinet made up of some non-student members that only meets four times a year?" one cabinet member asked at the meeting.

December Deadline

Cabinet members concluded the meeting by forming a committee to explore further restructuring possibilities.

The cabinet hopes to reach a decision by December, before the election of a new steering committee, Tandy said.

"But it is such an important change that we can't rush it," Tandy added. "At this point, the most important thing is to get everybody's input."