An Unexpected Delay

When the constitution draft for the proposed Undergraduate Council was completed last month, members of the committee that drew up the document said they were confident it would sail through all necessary channels with only minor changes and would be implemented by next semester.

Problems arose, however, when several student and Faculty groups raised questions about controversial planks in the constitution. Still, constitution committee members said they were certain that the new council could be operating by spring semester.

But events of the past week have cast serious doubt on the possibility of implementing the council before next fall at the earliest.

On Monday, three professors whom Dean Rosovsky had asked to review the constitution proposal released a letter listing several "serious problems" with the proposal, including the provision calling for assured minority representation on the council's administrative committee and the constitution's planks on funding.

The next day, the professors--Sidney Verba '53, the Rev. Peter J. Gomes and Patricia Limerick--told four members of the constitution committee during a breakfast meeting that because of a scheduling problem, the proposal most likely could not be reviewed by the entire Faculty until January. Even if the Faculty approved the document, it would be too late to include the $10 surcharge necessary to fund the council on students' term bills in time for the spring semester.

The latest development dampened hopes for getting the proposal passed in the near future and forced the constitutional convention, which met for the first time Tuesday night, to produce a last-gasp compromise asking the Corporation to include the surcharge on the students' bills before the Faculty votes on the proposal. If the Faculty does not approve the document, according to the plan, the Corporation would refund the money.

Verba said this week that such a plan was "possible," but John E. Dowling '57, professor of Biology and primary author of the Dowling Report, said the Corporation would "absolutely not" approve the measure.