A Palatable Solution for the ACSR

President Bok's blue-ribbon Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility received a boost this week when Dean Whitlock accepted a plan that provided a paintable way for students to be elected to the Committee.

Earlier in the week, an ad hoe committee called the Harvard-Radcliffe Lobby distributed petitions at the Houses protesting the original method of selecting the student representatives.

The petition, signed by 1500 undergraduates, called for Whitlock to hold College-wide elections to pick the two student members for the ACSR. The petition claimed that Whitlock intended to select the two students himself, after conducting interviews with applicants.

Whitlock said Wednesday the Lobby had misinterpreted Bok's original statement. In his October 10 announcement, Bok said that the two undergraduates would be "nominated by the dean of the College upon consultation with CHUL, CSCR and other interested groups."

Whitlock said he had made no decision on the selection procedure until after the Lobby had circulated the petition, but admitted that the thought Bok's statement left him free to choose the mechanism for election.

The Lobby's petition raised speculation that the ACSR, set up last month to advise a Corporation subcommittee on questions of corporate responsibility, might suffer the same late as the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities.

Two years ago, all 13 Houses refused to send representatives to the CRR.

Whitlock rejected the Lobby's plan in favour of an alternate proposal by the Committee of House and Undergraduate Life. The CHUL plan called for each House to elect two students to a College-wide panel of electors. This panel will then choose two of its members for the ACSR.

The plan accepted by Whitlock is essentially the method used to elect CHUL members. It's not surprising that the CHUL, members voted unanimously to recommend a selection process similar to its own, or that Whitlock would approve the plan.

Whitlock said he rejected the Lobby's plan because College-wide elections are "popularity contests." At least no one has ever accused CHUL, elections of being popularity contests.