HSA Gets Tighter With Harvard

Harvard Student Agencies chose a new general manager this week, and moved toward closer ties with the Harvard administration.

The new manager, Bradlee T.Howe '63, is currently director of the Student Employment Office and associate director of admissions.

In his annual report released prior to Howe's appointment. HSA president Arthur I. Segel '73 had called for a more clearly defined relationship between his organization and the University, and suggested that HSA seek subsidies from Harvard to cover its cumulative debts.

The report said, "A subsidy would enable HSA to stay financially secure as an organization while continuing in its function of providing productive work for needy undergraduates, a burden which will fall upon the University should HSA be forced to discontinue or greatly reduce operations."

Segel said that HSA's debts prevent it from expanding its employment of scholarship students.

Howe said that he will institute a policy of hiring managerial personnel on the basis of merit, rather than financial need. Segel had said in his report that HSA's current policy of placing a priority on expanding the number of jobs available and raising wages for students on scholarship has "hurt our ability to generate managers from our own organization."

He said, "We must often turn away those people most interested in the entreprenurial end of the organization on the basis of insufficient financial need -- the very people often likely to have the necessary managerial skills."

Segel said that HSA's employment of scholarship students has almost doubled in the past year, increasing from 450 to 800, as has the amount of money paid in salaries, which rose from $125,000 to $250,000.

Howe said that he intends to continue HSA's policy of concentrating on starting agencies that employ the maximum number of students, and said that he thinks HSA can increase further the amount of money paid in salaries.