Assembly Debates Governance Proposal

Student Assembly members, meeting for the first time this semester, disagreed last night on the merits of a professor's tentative proposal to include the assembly in the official structure of College governnace.

The tentative proposal--announced last week by John E. Dowling, professor of Biology and chairman of the ad hoc committee examining college governance--would allow House Committees to elect the assembly. It would also make the student caucuses of both the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) and the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) sub-committees of the assembly.

Three student members of the ad hoc committee explained the proposal to the assembly "It is only food for thought, not a formal recommendation," Joseph F. McDonough '81, one of the ad hoc committee members, told the assembly.

Accountability

David C. King '81, an assembly delegate from Leverett House, praised the proposal, which he said "would make CHUL and CUE more accountable to students, without destroying what the House Committees are doing."

But Dryden Pence '82, an assembly delegate from Eliot House, disagreed saying, "I'm not sure whether this idea would improve student government or just increase the power of the assembly." He added, "I don't think increasing the power of the assembly is the world's greatest idea."

"I'm afraid the proposal would only change the structure of the student-Faculty committees, and not make any real change in the balance of power between administrators, students and Faculty," Peter B. Fleishcer '80-4, an assembly delegate from Lowell House, told the assembly.

Mimi R. Jacobs '81, an assembly delegate from Winthrop House, said the proposal "would concentrate the number of people involved in student government, so that a few people would be running everything."

The ad hoc committee will review other proposals but this one is important, because it makes the assembly "the focus of all student government," McDonough said.