The Party's Over

Student Assembly referenda can produce unexpected results: last semester's poll brought Harvard students free toilet paper, and last week's vote on political parties spurred the Assembly's chairman to resign her membership in the Coalition for a Democratic University (CDU).

In her resignation statement, Maxine S. Pfeffer '81, chairman of the assembly, said she dropped her CDU affiliation to reassure students who oppose parties that the assembly "will function as a representative body and that its chairperson considers all views important."

Pfeffer added this week that she still believes the CDU serves a useful function within the University, but that the referendum--in which 46 per cent disapproved of the idea of political parties in the assembly--called for some action on her part.

Richard D. Bernstein '81-1, an assembly delegate from Mather House who says he is neither a partisan of the CDU nor one of its opponents, said yesterday he believes Pfeffer has the support of 90 per cent of the assembly, "not only in her recent decision, but in everything she has done this semester."

"I have read every ballot in Mather House, and many of them have "Who cares? written by the question on parties," Bernstein said. "Everyone should be content to let this particular fight be fought at election time," he added.

Carl F. Rosen '80, vice-chairman of the assembly and a CDU member, said this week the CDU may soon begin to steer a path more independent of the assembly.

The CDU began as an independent lobbying group for greater student participation in important University decisions, and its major mistake has been linking itself too tightly with the assembly, Pfeffer said.

The results of last week's poll have given the assembly initiatives to follow-up for a long time to come. Pfeffer added. The poll shows strong student support (65 per cent) for an experimental, one-year 14 mealplan option, and a whopping 83 per cent of the ballots ask for longer library hours during reading period.

Some assembly members also hope the poll will have impact beyond Harvard; they want federal legislators to take notice of strong student sentiment against the draft.