Reformers Move Against The CRR

The Faculty prepared this week to consider yet another proposal for reform of the irrepressible Committee on Rights and Responsibilities.

The latest proposal, the creation of William Paul, McKay Professor of Applied Physics, and a group of interested students, will be presented at next Tuesday's Faculty meeting.

It calls for:

* Re-examining the role of the Commission of Inquiry, which the Faculty created to "maintain and atmosphere in which violations of rights are unlikely to occur," and which has done very little;

* Giving students equal representation on the CRR. At present the Faculty is supposed to have a majority, and no students are serving at any rate because the Houses have refused to elect them, in protest of CRR procedures;

* Allowing defendants to decide whether their hearings are open or closed and permitting postponement of hearings scheduled at the end of the semester and,

* Granting accused students their degrees and requiring a two-thirds majority of the entire CRR for suspension of a defendant.

The 14 student members of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life voted unanimously this week to support Paul's plan, and the full CHUL Tuesday endorsed two of its points--giving students equal representation and requiring a two-thirds majority for suspension.

But the Faculty Council stuck to its own position on the CRR, devoting its meeting Wednesday to a discussion of details of scheduling for next week's Faculty meeting.

The Council's resolutions urge the CRR to "continue the improvement" in its procedures, appoint CRR factfinding officers, and, withhold accused students's degrees until students are "restored to good standing."

Paul said Monday that the last provision is unnecessary and en-dangers the idea that a degree recognizes academic achievement without being "partly a reward for being a good boy."

All the Houses except Lowell and Leverett conducted referenda on Paul's proposal this week. In the past, students have generally opposed the present CRR altogether.

Paul said Monday that for this reason student support for his plan might have unusual impact. But he remained somewhat pessimistic about the plan's prospects for passage.

A great deal of my proposal is acceptable to the Faculty as a whole," he said. "This is not to say that it is acceptable to the group of Faculty which is currently turning up at meetings."