Jewett Would Support Anonymous Publication of Ad Board Records

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 said yesterday that he would be in favor of the College's publishing a record of Administrative Board cases and decisions as long as students' names were not included.

Jewett said that he would consider releasing this information if students, faculty and administrators thought it would serve as a deterrent to further disciplinary problems.

"If people really felt it would be useful, I don't have any problem with that," Jewett said in an interview. "I'd have to be convinced that there is enough of a positive impact that giving out [the information] implies."

Currently, only Ad Board members, administrators and involved parties receive information on specific cases. Others are told about the cases on a strict need-to-know basis, according to Jewett.

"My particular practice is that [I tell someone] only if it seems important or germane [for the person] to know," Jewett said.

Colleges such as Tufts and Dartmouth already publish such a record.

"We think it's important that the community as a whole has some sense of how the disciplinary system is working," Marcia J. Kelly, Dartmouth's undergraduate judicial affairs officer, said in a telephone interview last month. "It is certainly part of our hope that it provides some education that there are certain outcomes for certain actions on campus."

Currently, Harvard publishes a "User's Guide to the Ad Board" which breaks cases down by number of administrative board actions each year but does not disclose the type of action pursued.

Jewett said that an anonymous list of Administrative Board actions might open people's eyes to the extent of academic misconduct at Harvard.

"I think that people might be surprised at the number of cases of academic dishonesty," said Jewett, who is a member of the Ad Board.

Future dean of the college Harry R. Lewis '68 said yesterday that such a list would give the community "better information."

"If we can provide better information about the nature of what goes on in the Board, I think that's generally to the good," Lewis said.

But such a program might be hard to implement, Lewis said.

"Obviously you couldn't report any information from which the identity of individuals might be reconstructed," Lewis said.