Two Proposals Get the Nod

Drama courses for credit and a committee to review student-faculty governance this week both won endorsements from student-faculty committees.

Student members of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) as well as the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) orginally opposed the list of ten courses submitted this fall by Robert S. Brustein, future director of the Loeb and director of the American Repertory Theater (ART).

Their earlier objections centered on the need to de-emphasize preprofessionalism and increase the number of students able to take part in drama.

CUE addressed those objections by deciding to include certain stipulations in its presentation to the Faculty Council, the next group to vote on the proposal.

These conditions include basing enrollment in lower-level courses on year in school, as does Fine Arts 13; allowing qualified students to take part in ART shows even if they are not enrolled in acting classes; and freeing students in courses from responsibilities to ART such as writing program notes.

Last fall, HRDC voted to reject Brustein as director of the Loeb when he came to Harvard to negotiate a drama institute, a proposal which the Harvard administration later rejected.

But Liz Maguire '80, president of HRDC, this week said more contact with Brustein this fall has mellowed some students' opinion of the acting company, and HRDC's incoming executive board now feels more positive about the Brustein-Harvard connection.

In other committee action, the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life approved this week a review committee that would suggest reforms for representation and structure of student-faculty committees. This committee could being work as early as February if other groups approve the idea.

The review would be the first scrutiny College governance has received since the Fainsod Committee established CUE CHUL and the Faculty Council ten years ago as a response to student dissatisfaction.

The committee may suggest reforms almost as drastic as the Fainsod Committee's, but the Faculty must finally approve the proposals.