A New Student Generation

For two months, the freshman class has been inching toward a break with the six-year tradition of boycotting the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, and although they moved closer to a final decision this week, the boycott has not yet broken.

The 15-member panel of freshmen that must decide whether to uphold the boycott made no final decision when it met Thursday, but it did stake out clear boundaries for future action.

In an eight-to-seven vote, the group turned down a motion to retain the boycott by refusing to nominate any students to the CRR. But it then defeated, 10-5, a proposal to nominate students unconditionally.

The group apparently intends to nominate several of its members to serve on the CRR on the condition that they work to reform the committee's composition and procedures from the inside.

The panel is also considering a motion to delay the students' appointment to the CRR until after the student caucus of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life drafts a set of CRR reform proposals and presents them to the Faculty Council.

It is not yet clear whether the panel can attach such conditions to the appointments under the complex selection procedures the Faculty has specified.

The Thursday votes now make it appear likely that the Faculty members of the CRR will be joined by students this year for the first time since the spring of 1970. But nobody can predict exactly when, or how.