Student Council Report Influences NSA Change

The Harvard Student Council report on the National Student Association has been instrumental in effecting several major changes in the association's National Congress, George R. Henry, Chairman of the New England Region for NSA, announced Saturday. These changes, together with a recommendation for more regional conferences, were passed by the National Executive Committee of the NSA at their December meeting.

Most of the important changes are aimed at improving the method of passing resolutions, which the Student Council listed as one of its major objections. By limiting to 25 the number of resolutions introduced and lengthening to three days the plenary session at which these are considered, the Committee feels that each resolution will have adequate discussion. Previously as many as 120 resolutions have been passed in a two-day session.

The Committee also recommended that the NSA sponsor more conferences for colleges with similar interests and problems, as well as regional conferences, such as the Eastern College Seminar sponsored by Harvard and Columbia last December. There has been increased demand recently for NSA support in organizing and promoting such conferences.

Role of Harvard

Henry said that Harvard's influence on these decisions came from two sources: the Council majority report on NSA, and personal discussion with members of the Executive Committee by Lewis B. Oliver '61, concerning the report. Oliver was not acting as an official representative of the Student Council.

Harvard's withdrawal from NSA "lent a sense of urgency to the report," according to Henry, but was not solely responsible for the changes, He doubted that the withdrawal had produced any effect on the member schools themselves.