Reagan Officials Begin Harvard Model Congress

Aspiring high school politicos met Washington political denizens yesterday, as Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger '38 and Secretary of the Interior Donald P. Hodel '57 kicked off the four-day Harvard Model Congress.

The two Reagan Administration officials gave the 600 high school delegates a taste of the policy issues facing Congress at the second-annual Harvard event.

About 50 Harvard students will create a simulation of the workings of Congress, the National Security Council and the Supreme Court for the high school delegates, said Jack W. Tsao '87, co-president of the Model Congress.

Committee meetings and speeches top the weekend's agenda, but the visiting students said that shopping, sightseeing, socializing and restaurant-hopping also factor into their plans.

The students, who converged yesterday on the Boston Marriott hotel, hail from 44 high schools around the country and constitutes the largest model congress that a college hosts, said Co-President Andrew F. Schmid '88.

Model Congress officials said that the schedule also calls for a visit to the University and meetings with admissions officers. "It just feels like they're trying to make us all want to go to Harvard," said one student from the Trinity School in New York City.

Fair Harvard

Both keynote speakers yesterday invoked memories of their undergraduate days at Harvard. Sporting a Harvard tie, Weinberger defended President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in his address yesterday afternoon.

And Hodel, who graduated 20 years after his Cabinet colleague, said that hewelcomed the opportunity to return to his almamater.

Weinberger said that critics of SDI ignore theimportance of finding new ways to deter theSoviets. "The inability of our critics to offersatisfactory answers has driven them to takerefuge in narrow budgetary wrangling and criticismof our scientific abilities," said Weinberger, whohas been one of SDI's most outspoken proponents.

"SDI is not only something we should do, wehave to do this," he said.

The Secretary of the Interior, who deliveredthe "State of the Union" address to Model Congressparticipants yesterday, said that the55-mile-an-hour speed limit should be repealedbecause it lies within the sphere of state law.

"So far everything is going very well.Weinberger was a hit and Hodel was very good. Thekids are enthusiastic but they are taking theissues and everything seriously," Tsao said.

But Love Boat fans will have to wait until thisafternoon for Rep. Fred Grandy '70 (R-Iowa), whoplayed Gopher on the popular sitcom, to addressthe Model Congress. The newly-elected congressmanwas slated to appear last night but his flight wasdelayed, said Model Congress officials