Deans Asks Faculty For CRR Reforms

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences A. Michael Spence has sent a letter to the faculty asking members to propose reforms to a controversial, seldom-used College disciplinary body.

The request for faculty input is part of a full-scale review of the Committee on Rights and Responsiblities (CRR) by the Faculty Council, a 19-member steering committee chaired by Spence. The dean said in the letter that the council hopes to have prepared a report and a series of proposals for the faculty's consideration before March.

The CRR, which was revived last year after a 10-year dormancy to discipline 19 student activists involved in two spring anti-apartheid protests, has been the target of heated debate and student boycott almost since it was established in 1969.

Students perennially have charged that the Vietnam War-era body, which upholds the faculty's resolution protecting freedoms of speech and movement, is "illegitimate" and is invoked solely to punish political dissent.

The Faculty Council in October heard a number of suggested reforms from students who observed the committee's proceedings last spring and into this fall and from professors who sat on the body. Some of these suggestions included allowing press coverage of the traditionally closed proceedings, asking the Undergraduate Council to select student delegates (now the responsibility of house committees) and requiring the CRR to meet yearly to review its procedures.

Spence stated in the letter that he and the council have given the CRR review "highest priority."