Members of Student Assembly Propose Alternate Constitution

Independent student groups should draft a constitution acceptable to both students and faculty based solely on the Dowling Report if the Faculty Council rejects the constitution now being written, two Harvard Student Assembly members said yesterday.

Students should take the Dowling Report and write it out in constitutional terms adding a committee to deal with minority representation in student affairs, Evan T. Smith '83 said yesterday.

The Dowling Report, which calls for a Student Council of five committees guided by a constitution, was a compromise between student, faculty and administrative members reached after nine months of discussion last year.

"The battle between the faculty and the students has already taken place. We have already come to a compromise," he said. The constitution "could have been ratified in November," he added.

Kenneth J. Drexlen '84, an assembly member from Leverett house, said he "supports what the constitution is doing, very much," but students should provide an alternative constitution if the faculty rejects the convention's draft.

Drexler said he thought the Faculty Council would reject the present constitution because the convention has been "too idealistic" in modifying the Dowling Report.

It's Mine

John E. Dowling, associate dean of the faculty, said he thought the constitution should stick closely to the report he helped organize because "if we are to get a constitution, that's the only way we can move."

However, it is unlikely that the Faculty Council will accept a clause requiring minority representation, Dowling said.

Andrew B. Herrmann '82, former chairman of the Student Assembly, said minority representation "is a big question," but he said he was also confident the convention could solve problems between students and faculty. It was unnecessary for independent groups to write constitutions, he said.

Heartbreaker

Leonard T. Mendonca '83, chairman of both the constitutional convention and the Student Assembly, said yesterday that the convention would not submit a constitution to the faculty which was unacceptable and that a special student-faculty conmmittee had been formed to make sure both parties agree to the document.

Michael G. Colantuono '83 a member of the constitutional convention and the Student Assembly, yesterday called the Dowling Report "a sketchy document, silent on a lot of issues." The present convention is trying to deal with the issues of funding allotments and minority representation, both of which the Dowling Report does not discuss, he added.

The convention should not give in to the faculty on the questions of representation and funding. Colantuono said, but added that clauses unacceptable to the faculty should be withdrawn under protest if they threatened the constitution as a whole.