Council Meets Conant, Buck, Clarifies Member List Issue

President Conant and Provost Buck had an informal, unofficial meeting with the retiring and the new Student Council yesterday afternoon and narrowed the field of disagreement on the controversial membership list rule.

As a result, Council President Richard H. Johnson '53 said last night he would make an appointment with the Provost "no discuss the problem at greater length. . .and narrow the disagreement." This, Johnson admitted, was the only "definite decision" made yesterday in a meeting that merely "defined the problem. All future decisions," he continued, "depend on our discussion with the Provost.

Two Views

Johnson said yesterday's session also "eliminated some of the complexities," a necessary step, "before anybody can make some sane judgments on the problem." Paul D. Sheats '54 wryly added that Conant and Buck "have a great faculty for facile argument ..."

The meeting defined the two viewpoints. The present requirements are that all groups seeking recognition must leave a list of at least ten members with the Dean's Office. Last December 3 the council recommended substituting a problem stating that only the names of a club's officers need be filed. Also, a club would only have to show, not give, a membership list when applying to use University facilities.

Johnson summed up the Council's position: "We want undergraduate organizations to be able to exist as recognized groups." The administration, he said, "wants to keep the membership rule mainly for administrative purposes such as determining organizational and athletic eligibility and probations."

Long History

The Faculty Committee on Undergraduate Activities last January 8 made two minor concessions, but turned down the Council petition calling for revocation of the rules. As a result Carl M. Sapers '53 proposed appealing to Conant.

Debate on the membership rule has see-sawed, back and forth between the Dean's Office and the Council since March 1948, when Associate Dean Watson announced he would codify the rules. After much discussion the Council issued a complicated 33-page report in March 1950, and Watson replied with an eight-page booklet the next January, at which time the Council agreed to a term's trial period.