Freshman Council and Leverett Panel Endorse Student Plan to Reform CRR

The Leverett House committee and the Freshman Council approved a proposal by a student group to reform the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) Tuesday, after the same proposal sparked angry debate at a Winthrop House committee meeting Monday, members of both House committees said yesterday.

Dean Rosovsky and Dean Fox met last week with Laura Besvinick '80, a freshman nominee to the CRR, and Rosovsky recommended that a student group be organized to work on the proposals with either Charles D. Whitlock, associate dean of the Faculty, or Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, Besvinick said yesterday.

Brad Behrman '78, chairman of the Leverett House committee, said yesterday the proposal passed with "little debate," adding he saw no reason to continue the upperclassmen's boycott of the CRR if the Faculty accepts the proposed reforms.

Fox said yesterday that any House Committee decision to end the boycott, based on the condition that the Faculty accept the CRR reforms, would not affect next year's CRR membership, because proposed reforms will not come before the Faculty this year.

Fox added he believes that administrators, who have had experience with the CRR, would be able to assist students unfamiliar with its structure and procedures in considering reforms.

A group of graduate students, representatives of the Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life (CHUL), and freshmen nominees to the CRR present proposals for structural and procedural reforms of the CRR earlier this week to all House committees.

A freshman committee selected by CHUL voted last month to end the seven-year boycott of the CRR in spite of continuing boycott by upperclassmen.

Besvinick said she would support students working with administrators on the reforms, because it would provide a broader base of support for those reforms.

Winthrop House committee members, however, expressed grave reservations about the proposals in an "emotional" meeting Monday, Robert J. Palay '78, a House Committee member, said yesterday.

"Many people wonder why the freshmen broke the boycott at all," he said, adding he thinks some committee members see the boycott as the last vestige of a "dying" student protest movement.

Other Winthrop House committee members said yesterday they felt the presentation of the reform proposal by Nancy L. Rose '80, a CRR nominee, had also provoked some hostility.

The committee members said Rose did not appear to adequately consider student objections to the CRR, leading some members to believe the proposals were being pushed through without enough student comment.

The committee will vote on the proposals at its meeting next Monday, members said yesterday.

Rose said yesterday she found the heated student reaction at the meeting "unexpected," and added she thought the boycott issue was less important than the reform proposals.

Stuart Peskoe '76, a first-year student at the GSAS and one of the authors of the proposals, said yesterday the students who proposed the reforms "are not trying to railroad anything through."

He added that if students do not support the reforms, he would not propose them to the Faculty.

CRR faculty members who have met with the student nominees yesterday disagreed over the proposed reforms.

Elliot Forbes '40, Peabody Professor of Music, said yesterday the Faculty may consider the reforms, but that he would not take a position on those reforms without a meeting of the faculty members of the CRR.

George W. Mackey, Clay Professor of Mathematical and Theoretical Sciences, said yesterday he is "not in favor of student involvement in administrative affairs," adding he would like to see a return to the former Advisory Board, a disciplinary board without student members.

Other House committees will debate the proposals next week, Besvinick said