Student CRR Representatives Draw Up Committee Reforms

The four student members of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) are developing a list of committee reforms, Laura Besnivick '80, one of the four undergraduate CRR members, said yesterday.

The preliminary draft calls for changing the CRR's composition to seven students and eight Faculty members. One of the Faculty members would serve as chairman, voting only to create or break a tie.

Presently, the CRR is supposed to consist of five tenured Faculty member, two non-tenured Faculty, one senior tutor, four undergraduates and two graduate students.

Other proposed reforms include the barring of hearsay evidence from CRR proceedings and a guarantee of the right to legal counsel for all students brought before the committee.

The organizers of the reform effort are seeking input from as many student and Faculty groups as possible before submitting a final list of reforms to the Faculty, William T. Prewitt'78, chairman of the CHUL Student Caucus, which helped draw up the reforms, said yesterday.

Prewitt said he wants to devise a list of reforms that will not appear dogmatic to the Faculty, although he also wants to secure a "strong base of student support," he added.

The reform proposal should be ready by the end of the academic year, although they probably will not go before the Faculty until the fall, Sellers said.

"I'm confident that they will be well received," he added.

The current reform efforts began in March, when a panel of freshmen voted to break a six-year boycott of the CRR by nominating four freshmen to the committee.

The four freshmen--Besnivick, Nancy Rose '80, Mortimer N. Sellers '80, and Robert Wares '80--will serve as the sole undergraduates on the committee in the absence of any upper-class nominees.