PBHA Board Seeks Power to Hire Its Staff

The Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) board of trustees last night endorsed a recommendation that would allow the organization to hire its own staff.

The vote by the board, which includes Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, may help bring about a lasting compromise in the two-year dispute between PBHA and the University over the structure of public-service programs at Harvard.

The 18-member board refused to indicate which members were present at the meeting and which voted for the proposal.

The board of trustees includes three college administrators, five students and 10 alumni and supporters of PBHA.

Authored by a PBHA program development team that includes Assistant Dean for Public Service Judith H. Kidd, the proposal would enable the hiring of an executive director, associate director and development coordinator who would be directly responsible to the PBHA board.

The new staff structure would eliminate the position of chief operating officer, a liaison between the University and PBHA, which has been vacant since the departure of Kenneth G. Smith last week.

The vote represents another move forward for the recommendation, which was supported by 65 of 67 PBHA cabinet members in a vote last month.

But it is unclear what must happen for the proposal to become official policy.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 has not publicly given his views on the proposal, although his representatives, Epps and Kidd, were on the PBHA panels that have supported it.

And it remains unclear how the three new posts would be funded.

PBHA President Roy E. Bahat '98 said yesterday that he hoped that during talks between PBHA and Harvard, "the University will articulate very specifically" what changes it envisions in PBHA's current administrative policies.

Bahat added that the new staff would "work toward improving formal accountability" among the administrators of PBHA's programs "as well as improving day-to-day accountability" of student volunteers within the organization.

But no plans for filling the new positions or implementing the new staff structure can be made until further talks between PBHA and the University take place.

After the vote, Bahat said he was happy with the board's discussions.

"The board has made a very strong statement to the University," he said.

He added that relations between PBHA and the University have been "very cooperative."

The vote "represents progress from previous solutions," which all parties "including the University" have found unsatisfying, Bahat said.