Nader Group Starts Drive For Petition

Calling on the University to open up its governance process, Harvard Watch will kick off today a petition effort that will culminate in a visit by activist Ralph Nader later this month.

Joined by the newly formed Committee on University Practices (COUP), which has 20 members, the Nader-supported Harvard Watch, an activist watchdog organization, will ask undergraduates to sign a petition demanding that the administration make public its internal documents and publish the minutes and agenda of the Corporation, Harvard's seven-mangoverning body.

COUP, a organization which will work toincrease student involvement in the governance ofHarvard, will canvass signatures in house dininghalls until the end of the month. Consumer rightsactivist Ralph Nader will come to Harvard on March25th to speak on the issue, said Harvard Watchhead Robert Weissman '88 '89.

"We want to see the University match its idealsabout an open community of scholars and a freeflow of information with reality," said Weissman,who has taken the year off to be the sole memberof Harvard Watch.

"We will be able to raise enough signatures andraise student awareness enough that the Universitywill change," COUP member Amy Allina '88 said.

Current policy forbids the release of internalUniversity records, without a special dispensationfrom the administration, for 50 years, accordingto the Harvard Archives.

Vice President and General Counsel DanielSteiner '54 refused to comment on the matter, andCorporation and Archive officials did not returnrepeated calls yesterday.

"Students have been subject to an almoststudied neglect of their expectations of whatHarvard can do for them," consumer activist Nadersaid yesterday. "And the Corporation likes it thatway."

"I'd like to provide the students with aframework with which to evaluate the Corporation,"Nader said. "After a while you don't have anystandards to judge institutions."

Nader founded Harvard Watch last September to"critically examine" the University's workings andits relations with the government andcorporations. Nader has criticized the Universityfor the secretive nature of its governance processand its absence of student input.

The petition also calls on President Bok todeliver an annual paper on the "state of collegestudents," followed by an open forum withundergraduates.

"We want to form a dialogue between studentsand the President because he has been inaccessibleto students," Weissman said.

Bok is scheduled to address the UndergraduateCouncil later this year after he returns from hissabbatical.

The Corporation also agreed last month to holda meeting with select members of the council andHouse Committees to discuss University investmentpolicy. But the council voted that the meetingwould only be used to to urge the Corporation tohold a meeting open to the entire Harvardcommunity