Boycott Ends as Students Attend First CRR Meeting

For the first time since students initiated a boycott of the disciplinary body seven years ago, the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) met yesterday with student members present.

All members agreed to discuss at their next meeting a list of proposals for reform of the CRR drawn up last spring by a coalition of freshmen, student representatives on the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life, and graduate students.

Student criticism of the CRR, a student-faculty body established to discipline students involved in political demonstrations, has centered on its Faculty majority, its policy of admitting hearsay evidence, and the absence of an appeals board for its decisions.

If CRR Faculty members agree to any of the proposals, student members hope to have the committee's chairman bring them before the Faculty to ask that the Faculty vote to implement the changes, Mortimer N. Sellers '80, a CRR member, said yesterday.

Nicolaas Bleombergen, McKay Professor of Physics and CRR's new chairman, said yesterday he was unfamiliar with the reform proposals and did not know whether CRR's Faculty members would support them.

The reform proposals call for the creation of an appeals board for CRR decisions, the barring of hearsay evidence from CRR proceedings, and the guarantee of legal counsel to all parties involved in CRR hearings. The proposals would also open CRR meetings to the public if both parties agree.

Under current rules, CRR meetings are closed to the public.

Student CRR members have asked that the committee's composition be altered to include seven student and seven Faculty members and a Faculty member as chairman who could vote in the case of a tie.

The committee now consists of five tenured and two non-tenured Faculty members, a senior tutor, four undergraduates and two graduates.

Bloembergen said he knew of no disciplinary cases to be brought before the CRR.

Bloembergen said he "ended up with the chairmanship by default," adding "all the Faculty members were very reluctant to accept it."

"I'd rather not have been on the committee. I think that's true for most of the Faculty members." Bloembergen said, adding "If a case comes before us, it can be very time consuming."

The Faculty established the CRR in 1969 to handle disciplinary cases involving political actions. Students have boycotted the group since its formation to protest the CRR's structure and procedural rules.

Following the 1969 occupation of University Hall, the Faculty established the CRR as a student-Faculty body to discipline students involved in political demonstrations.

Student members resigned from the CRR in 1970. The current student members are the first to be appointed since then