Considering the Constitution

The delicate work of fashioning a constitution for Harvard's new student government continued to move ahead slowly this week, but increasingly signs indicated that the Founding Fathers of the fetal undergraduate council would not see the fruits of their labor until long after their mid-winter deadline.

In an effort to end the impasse over the proposed document, Dean Rosovsky tapped three Faculty Council members to confer informally with four student leaders and, ideally, settle upon a compromise document acceptable to students and Faculty.

The dean's logic was simple: Faculty and students increasingly had voiced qualms about the constitution, particularly its provision guaranteeing two minority spots on the proposed council's executive committee; Rosovsky hoped the joint body's discussions would yield a consensus that could secure both sides' support.

But almost immediately, differences arose between student and Faculty members over the new unit's role.

To students, the body was purely advisory; it would, they said, provide them with an opportunity to persuade professors of the need for the constitution to remain intact. By stressing in depth the roots of the document's complex plan on minority representation and funding procedures, students said, they intended to prove the constitution's worth.

Faculty members seemed to see the joint sessions differently. To them, the meetings provided a last chance to change a document that most found objectionable. In fact, several Faculty Council members said the constitution as presently written might not garner a single vote in the council.

In addition to the question of the joint body's role, the issue of timing increasingly has come to dominate discussions of the proposed council. Last year, students had aimed for inaugurating the council at the start of fall term; however, a series of procedural mishaps last spring led them to eye the beginning of this spring term as desirable.

It now appears they may have to wait even longer. The many concerns Faculty members have voiced over the new constitution, including numerous wording disagreements, indicates that the joint body will have to meet for at least several weeks to agree. And because a key Faculty member of the joint body will be out of town next week, the group won't begin discussions until November 10. Because of the subsequent need for ratification by a myriad of groups, students and Faculty now agree that date may just prove too late to get the council funded and functioning by February 1.