Four Amendments Pass In Council Referendum

Four out of five amendments to the constitution of the Student Council were voted by overwhelming majorities in yesterday's student referendum. Only a small Dudley vote remained to make the results official.

The overall effect of the passage of three of the four amendments is to increase the total membership of the Council from 17 to 28 members.

Eight of the eleven new members are to be appointed by the Masters and House Committee of each House. The six class representatives at large are to be replaced by one representative elected from each of the eight Houses.

Under the new system, one Junior and one Sophomore will be elected from each House in the Spring, making a total of twenty-four members from the upper-classes. The remaining four members will come from the Freshman class, replacing the three who were formerly chosen.

The fourth amendment passed calls for automatic expulsion from the Council of members missing more than five meetings. David M. Perlmutter '59, Secretary of the Council, stressed that this provision is designed to compel attendance at meetings, not to get rid of Council undesirables.

Defeated Amendment

Defeated was the proposal to reduce the size of the vote needed for amendment. Over half of the students who voted rejected the proposal to cut the two-thirds requirement to a simple majority.

Perlmutter further emphasized that the Council will now be more representative of the student body. Roger C. Algase '59, President of the Harvard Liberal Union, noted, however, that eight of the 11 new members were not elected but appointed.

Urging that he was speaking for him self and not the Liberal Union, Algase emphasized that the amendments in fact reduced the student representation in the Council. It was partially for this reason, he stated, that he had signed a petition for the Council's abolition at Dudley House yesterday noon.

Leland stated that he had heard nothing of the petition but that the amendment was designed to increase the effect of student pressure on the Council.

More Representative

Leland urged that appointed members would be more representative of the student body than the exclusively political Council now in office. He noted that these appointees would still be responsible to their House Committees and would be in daily contact with the students.

"They are certainly more representative than the class representatives-at-large used to be. These new members will at least have definite constituencies and know the people they are supposed to represent."