Harvard Political Union Requests Seats For Students on Committee on Houses

The Harvard Political Union has drafted a statement proposing that Harvard undergraduates be represented on the Faculty Committee on Houses.

Frank Raines '71, a member of the HPU, said yesterday that four house committees -- Kirkland, Winthrop, Quincy, and Dunster--have already voted support of the statement and that the Leverett House Committee would discuss it tonight and the Lowell Committee on Tuesday.

The HPU statement makes the following recommendations:

* That the Committee on Houses of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences be reorganized so that its members will consist of one representative of the House Committee of each House, three representatives of the Freshman Council, the Master of each House, and the Dean of Freshmen.

The Dean of the Faculty, the Dean of the College, the Dean of Students, the Administrative Vice-President of the University, and the Assistant Dean for Resources and Planning should be ex officio members of the Committee, the report adds.

* That the House Committee of each House and the Freshman Council should be given authority to establish dress requirements in dining rooms and regulate use of rooms.

Raines said that the proposal was being sent to all of the house Committees, the Freshman Council, and the HUC before being sent to the Faculty for approval.

"We selected the Committee on Houses because students have a greater expertise in that area," Raines said. "Also the mundane issues of dress codes and parietals belong more properly under student control."

Bruce Chalmers, Master of Winthrop House, stated that he was "very much in favor" of any proposal regarding student representation on the Committee, but he was not happy with the heavy representation proposed by the HPU. "This creates a student majority," he said.

John Hanify '71, a member of the HUC, called the proposal "completely out of the context of the current discussion." Hanify said, "The HUC, HPC, RUS, and SFAC are now discussing the issue of student representation in a much wider perspective. Particular proposals simply distort the issue."

"Our purpose, along with the case for representation, is to strengthen the findings of the Fainsod Committee," Raines said. "We feel it is not too early to discuss particular issues."