HUC Advocates Personal Appeals In Board Cases

The Administrative Board should allow students facing disciplinary charges to plead their own cases, the Harvard Undergraduate Council urged last night.

The Council unanimously passed a "Judicial Sub-Committee Report" which questioned the fairness of the present system to the student.

The Council said that the imminence of the draft causes any disciplinary decision to take on "tremendous significance."

"When such are the stakes, when the matter is no longer between the student and the College," the report said, "them it is hardly sufficient to ask his to rest his case on a written statement if he feels he should have a further say."

Under the present system, the student facing disciplinary action submits a written report to the Board through his senior tutor. The Board then acts upon the report and the testimony of the senior tutor.

The Administrative Board holds its regular weekly meeting this afternoon and will probably be confronted with the HUC report.

Discussion of the issue began two weeks ago when the Harvard Policy Committee questioned the Board's practice of barring students from testifying in their own behalf.

The plan emphasized that the student should be given the alternative of appearing before the Board and that an appearance should not be substituted for the written report but should supplement it.