Corporation Asks Council For Meeting

Following up on a meeting with a select group of undergraduates last year, the Harvard Corporation asked for a closed meeting with Undergraduate Council and House Committee members on March 9. Council Chairman Evan J. Mandery '89 said yesterday.

Mandery said he accepted tentatively the invitation from the University's chief governing body, delivered to him by Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 early this week.

The invitation comes 15 months after the Corporation rejected a campuswide petition signed by more than 1100 students--and led by divestment activists--that asked for an open meeting with the seven-man body. In response, the Corporation offered to meet with a select group of undergraduates. A group of eight students from the Undergraduate Council and the House Committees met with the Corporation last April on the condition that the meeting be restricted to discussing the possibility of holding an open meeting in the future.

Mandery said he hopes the council will not limit the agenda for the upcoming meeting to the open forum issue. "I think it would be a more productive tactic to have the Corporation perceive us as an ally rather than an antagonist," he said.

"There's a wide range of issues we can discuss," Mandery said. Council representatives could make concrete progress with the Corporation on such issues as the need for a revised tenure policy and the possibility of a student center, Mandery said.

Jewett said yesterday of the session planned for this spring that "my assumption would be that [the Corporation] thought it was a good idea and they wanted to continue the practice that was started last year."

Some campus activists who helped launch the petition drive last fall see theCorporation's invitation as a potential obstacleto future open meetings with the governing body.

The Corporation could point to a "token privatemeeting" with Council members as proof of itsresponsiveness to student concerns, said Kim B.Ladin '87-88, who was a member of the SouthernAfrica Solidarity Committee last year when thegroup began the drive for open meetings, "I wouldreally hope that [the undergraduaterepresentatives] would limit the agenda to gettingan open meeting," said Ladin.

Mandery said, "I don't see [a closed meetingwith the Corporation] as a substitute for an openmeeting. "By working with the Corporation on anumber of issues, the council representatives canpresent "a unified student voice" which "tells[the Corporation] that the open meeting isnecessary." Mandery said. "There's nothing to loseby meeting with them."

"I couldn't imagine [Corporation members]changing their minds on something they've been seton for so long. "Mandery said.

Mandery said that if the council did not wishto have another closed meeting with theCorporation, it could certainly instruct me toreject the invitation. My preliminary acceptanceis not irrevocable," he said.

But it seems likely that the invitation will beaccepted by the council, and that the agenda willnot be limited.

"In light of the fact that the administrationseems to have approached the UndergraduateCouncil, I think it's fair that we deal with awide range of student issues," said CouncilRepresentative Ted C. Liazos '89, who last yearwas one of the leaders of the fight to restrictthe meeting to a discussion of a future openforum.

Liazos said that last year the Council wasmorally bound" to limit the agenda since theimpetus for the meeting came from campus activistsfor an open forum.

Council members who met with the Corporationlast year said they were not optimistic about theprospects for breakthroughs on areas of studentconcern at this spring's meeting. "I'm a littleskeptical what progress, if any, we could make,"said Council Representative Amy B. Zegart '89, whomet with the Corporation last year.

Last year, the Corporation made it clear to thestudent representatives that the ruling body'srole was restricted to financial matters and thatit could not discuss academic or student lifeconcerns, Zegart said