HPC, HUC Near Joint Resolution

The special sub-committee on Mather House may now get an almost-joint resolution from the Harvard Policy Committee and the Harvard Undergraduate Council.

Henry R. Norr '68, president of the HPC, said yesterday that he thought it likely the HPC and HUC would submit a policy resolution to the sub-committee pointing out differences of opinion between the groups that prevented approval of a true joint resolution last Monday night.

HUC members at a meeting held then failed to approve one of five points of policy about the planning implications of a tenth Harvard House which the HPC had itself approved in an earlier vote. The HPC had called upon the new subcommittee not to consider the option of expanding the size of Harvard College classes when Mather opened; HUC members favored a resolution asking the sub-committee to discuss the option of increasing class size to fill the House only in the larger context of educational policy and the philosophy of the House system.

The new sub-committee, chaired by Richard T. Gill '48, Master of Leverett House, plans to discuss two other options on filling the tenth House; ending off-campus living for most College students or deconverting existing House rooms and at the same time raising room rents to cover the added operating costs of the new House.

Norr said in an interview that he expected the submitted resolution would state the four points the two organizations agreed upon and then would state the differences the groups expressed on expanding class size. The two organizations had agreed that the Gill sub-committee should collect and publish cost figures on deconversion, that space should be left in the new House for classrooms and seminar rooms, that off-campus living should not be abandoned, and that students should participate in the deliberations and decision of the Gill sub-committee.