Keeping Track ...

It started as a grass roots movement in Vermont, rushed through New Hampshire. Massachusetts, California and even penetrated the ivy-covered walls of Harvard itself.

Last week about 150 students and 20 faculty members from the Medical School and the School of Public Health joined the anti-nuke crusade, journeying to Washington to lobby members of Congress on behalf of a freeze and reduction in U.S. and Soviet nuclear weaponry.

The participants presented petitions signed by 420 Med School and SPH faculty members, before fanning out for meetings in 194 House and Senate offices.

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After helping both the Harvard Delivery News Service and the Hasty Pudding Club through financial muddles last year, Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III has apparently decided that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This spring the College has begun to provide free financial consulting to some student organizations and next year it will offer fiscal advice to all interested campus groups.

The program--now in its early stages--pays an individual consultant to confer with the student officers of organizations, evaluating and advising on general bookkeeping and the more complex procedure involved with filing non-profit tax returns.

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In the past, Harvard has been at the forefront of almost every educational trend, but a report on Law School curriculum released in part last week suggests that this time Harvard may be surfing on the back of the wave.

The Michelman Report, which was prepared by a Law School faculty committee, charges that Harvard's curriculum is "strongly dominated by doctrinal studies," and advocates increased use of clinical education at the school.

But legal educators last week down-played the nationwide impact of the report, saying that a trend towards clinical education is already taking place around the country. "I don't think what they're doing is radical; I think they're recognizing reality," said UCLA Law School Dean William D. Warren.

The report also drew criticism from Harvard's associate dean, Charles R. Nelson '60. In a memo to the faculty. Nelson charged that law school is suffering from faculty polarization and urged that the faculty resolve this split before it considers curricular change.

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Disabled students at Harvard are planning ahead for next fall. The College has asked them to submit a list of no more than eight courses from which they plan to choose their schedules. Though the college is required by federal law to provide equal access to education for the disabled, it anticipates "very little flexibility" in moving classes to more accessible locations because of renovations in Sever Hall scheduled for next fall.

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The conference flyers looked innocuous enough. Done in tasteful brown and red, they announced a conference on indigenous people's rights sponsored by the American Law Students Association. An international panel of speakers was scheduled to debate issues of land, education and resources during a quiet weekend conference.

But by the time the conference ended last Sunday, the student organizers had received five death threats from anonymous callers, the Harvard Police had conducted a security sweep of the conference site in Austin Hall, and 150 students had gathered outside Paine Hall to join a "silent vigil" triggered by one of the conference's speakers.

At the center of the controversy was Deena Abu-Loghod, an employee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who came to the conference to participate in a two-hour afternoon panel. While marchers outside carried signs denouncing the PLO, the audience inside gave Abu-Loghod a generally warm reception.

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If this is the dawning of the computer whiz kid age, nearly a quarter of the freshman class is unaware of it. These delinquent 359 have not yet fulfilled one or both parts of the Quantitative Reasoning Requirement, which, the Handbook for students says, must be satisfied by the end of their freshman year. Those students who did not pass the last QRR data test last month and those who do not pass the last computer test, to be given today, will be given the option of taking the tests during freshman week next year. Those who do not pass will be forced to enroll in a course designed to fulfill the requirements next semester, or face stiff penalties from the Ad Board.

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An unusually large number of students accepted on a "forced commuter" basis this year have complained to the University.

Showing an increased concern for local students, Harvard this year accepted 41 such student as opposed to 13 last year. Although more than 20 of the students accepted have lodged complaints. University officials said last week they will not change their policy of accepting students on a forced commuter basis.

"None of them are happy." Michael Palm, the senior advisor in charge of incoming non-resident students, said last week, adding. "The reactions rang from disappointed to enraged, and the enraged will likely take residence elsewhere."

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The Democratic Club's newly elected officers are Christina A. Spaulding '84, president; David V. Thottungal '84, vice president; Pauline Remenyi '85, treasurer; and Michael Kremer '85, secretary.