Assembly Votes to Seek Recognition From Faculty

In a special, final meeting last night, the Student Assembly voted to seek "some form" of official recognition from the University, probably through Faculty legislation. The assembly also decided to ask the University to establish an experimental 21-14 meal plan next year.

Elections for new assembly members will be held today and tomorrow in the Freshman Union and all House dining halls except Kirkland House. The Kirkland House Committeee has delayed elections one week in order to allow more candidates to file self-nomination statements, Patrick Fischer '79, Kirkland House committee chairman, said yesterday.

A survey of House committee chairmen yesterday indicates about 125 candidates campus-wide are running for 90 assembly seats. About 75 candidates have adopted the platform of the Coalition for a Democratic University (CDU), the assembly's first political party.

The resolutions passed by the assembly last night are binding on the next assembly unless the new delegates vote to reject them, Steven V. R. Winthrop '80, outgoing chairman of the assembly, said last week.

The assembly voted last night go ask for a choice of meal plans next year because most students voted for such a choice in the assembly poll taken earlier this year. Michael A. Calabrese '79, author of the motion, said last night.

The 21-14 meal plan endorsed by the assembly would provide savings to students who choose not to eat breakfasts but would not mean higher board fees for students who continue to eat all meals.

Rally Round the Flag

Because about 30 people--less than half of the assembly delegates--attended last night's meeting, there was not a quorum.

Assembly members nevertheless voted to form an ad hoc committee to write legislation seeking official recognition for the assembly. The members could not decide whether faculty members should join the committee or whether the assembly should seek formal recognition from the Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) as well as from the Faculty.

Sarah V. Carpenter '81, a Mather House assembly delegate, told the assembly University administrators may no longer allow the assembly to reserve meeting rooms on campus if the assembly does not seek formal recognition.

Winthrop warned the assembly that if it becomes a formally-recognized Harvard organization it will have to abide by University rules. "If we had been a recognized organization, the Boston-Boston disco party would have been a lot more difficult to give," Winthrop added.

"Our purpose is not just to give parties, though," Winthrop said. "We should seek recognition so that when we vote the whole University will say 'That's what students think,'" Winthrop added