Policy Committee Requests Watson Clarify Remarks

The Harvard-Radcliffe Policy Committee drafted a short letter to Dean Watson yesterday, calling on him to explain his recent statements about student radicals.

The letter read: "The Harvard-Radcliffe Policy Committee shares the concern of the Harvard community over your remarks on student radicals, as reported in the CRIMSON of Oct. 1. We join with the Student-Faculty Advisory Council in requesting a clarification of the intent and implications of your remarks."

The HPC letter referred to Watson's statement at a meeting of the Harvard College Fund last weekend, when he said that serious disruption at Harvard is caused by "a very, very tiny group of people, including two or three sons of active communists."

Neither the committee's three faculty members nor two deans were present at yesterday's meeting, which had been postponed from Wednesday because of the Jewish holiday. But a quorum of student members attended and after a short discussion voted unanimously to draft the letter to Dean Watson.

The HPC is primarily a student committee which suggests educational policy to the various departments and the CEP.

"One of the questions that arose in discussion was: 'Is this matter in our jurisdiction?'" HPC chairman Kenneth M. Kaufman '69 said yesterday. "We decided that we ought to speak out when an issue concerned the whole community. We are certainly not condemning Dean Watson; we simply are concerned that he clarify exactly what he meant by his statement."