Undergraduate Group Tries Hand At Conducting Presidency Search

A self-appointed group of undergraduates under the direction of a Radcliffe sophomore has spent the Fall interviewing candidates for president of Harvard and supplying their opinions in several meetings with the Corporation.

The founder of the group, Natalie Shiras '73, has traveled to New Haven and Princeton to interview Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. and Carl Kaysen, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, under a $300 grant from the Harvard Independent, a weekly newspaper.

Todd K. Jennings '71, president of the Independent, said last night that in making the grant the Independent was only fronting for his roommate, Richard G. Rockefeller '71. The Independent is a tax-exempt organization.

The group of three sophomores and two seniors has had four hour-long meetings with different members of the Corporation, more than any other single undergraduate group. Shiras has prepared a report for Senior Fellow Francis H. Burr '35 summarizing her impressions of interviews with potential candidates and other college administrators.

Of the "candidates" the report lists, only three are on the list of 23 candidates currently under consideration by the Corporation-Kaysen, Derek Bok, dean of the Law School, and Edward M. Purcell, Gade University Professor.

Members of the ad hoc group said last night that Brewster has been the model on which they have based their investigation. Of the three candidates still under consideration. Bok is the one the report describes most favorably.

Group members said they never intended to represent themselves as an official student group. Kate Ecker '71. representative of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) and a member of the group, said last night, "As a representative of the CUE I felt some of us could be helpful to the Corporation as students who are perhaps more familiar than others with some of the names they were considering.

"But Natalie's report is only the opinion of individuals. I would object if this report has any more weight than some people's opinions."

Kevin A. Benjamin '73, another group member, said he was disappointed at the Corporation's treatment of the group. "It seems like this was the kind of thing they were just putting up with."

Shiras got the idea of providing student inputs on the decision process last August. She approached Burr, who was enthusiastic about the idea of such a group. Her first target in attempting to raise money for the enterprise was John D. Hanify '71, president of the late Harvard Undergraduate Council. Later she approached the Independent.

The group includes Shiras, Benjamin, Ecker, Susan A. Goldbloom '71 and Terry Saunders '73.