Petitioners Seek Replacement For Student Council

A petition calling for the abolition of the Student Council has been circulating in some Houses, the CRIMSON learned yesterday. The petition proposes to replace the Council with an inter-House committee.

D. Dwight Dogherty, Jr. '59, a member of the Student Council, said yesterday that he is sympathetic to the petition, and will sign it. "I don't know yet whether I'd vote for such a proposal, but I think it should be brought before the students," he stated.

The petition reportedly asks that the Council surrender its assets to a new inter-House committee, composed of two members from each House, and three from the Freshman Union.

"There might be a psychological value in changing the name from 'Student Council' to 'Inter-House Committee,'" said Dogherty. "I tend to think of Harvard student government not on a college-wide basis, but in terms of the House system."

On Wednesday, Dogherty criticized the present Council as "composed of members. . . whose main object is to use Council membership to push personal political endeavors." The proposed inter-House committee, Dogherty feels, would eliminate this objection to a great degree.

However, Dogherty does not think that the petition will succeed in forcing a Council referendum on the matter. "But the debate stimulated by such a campaign might bring out new and effective ways of strengthening the present Council," he said.