Close Vote May End CRR Student Boycott

By a narrow plurality, freshmen voted Thursday to break the four-year student boycott of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR), but the Freshman Council may decide to override the vote and not begin the process of selecting student members for the CRR.

Calling the results of the referendum "inconclusive," Katherine Gleason '80, moderator of the Freshman Council, said last night the council may vote next Tuesday to delay a decision to start the selection process until after a proposed January conference of House committee and Freshmen Council representatives discusses the CRR issue.

Gleason said the council could also hold another referendum or simply accept the plurality in Thursday's vote.

The referendum results, released yesterday afternoon, show that 246 Yard freshmen voted to send representatives to the CRR, 223 voted against doing so, and 122 said they did not have an opinion on the issue.

Only freshmen living in the Yard were eligible to vote in the referendum. Gleason said the turnout of 601 was "reasonable" because it represented about half of the Yard freshmen.

The voting came on the same ballot with the freshmen elections for representatives to the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life, and the Committee on Undergraduate Education.

The Faculty established the CRR as a student-faculty body to discipline student demonstrators after the 1969 student occupation of University Hall.

However, students have refused to serve on the CRR since 1972, protesting the CRR's composition and procedures.

Barbara Klein '80, a member of the freshmen Council and a newly elected CHUL representative, said yesterday she had been contacted about a proposed meeting in January for House committee members and freshmen to discuss a College-wide policy for the CRR student boycott.

None of the organizers of the meeting could be reached for comment last night.

Last year, a similar meeting of House committee representatives resulted in a continuation of the student boycott and the formation of an ad hoc student committee that drafted proposals to reform the CRR.

The proposals, which the Faculty has not yet considered, would alter the CRR's student-faculty ratio, disallow the introduction of hearsay evidence against students, and revise the committee's charter.

Lowell House joined three other Houses earlier this week in deciding to boycott the CRR.

The Leverett House committee voted Wednesday to postpone a decision on sending representatives to the CRR until after CHUL considers the CRR issue.

Megan Lesser '78, chairman of the Leverett House committee, said Thursday that Davis Goodman '77, the Leverett House CHUL representative, intends to bring up the CRR issue at the next CHUL meeting.