As the search for an assistant dean for public service nears its sixth month, campus public service leaders are chating under the yoke of administrative oversight.

In the past several weeks, the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), Inc., student board has written two memos calling for better communication with the administration about the future structure of public service at Harvard.

"We want to retain the integrity and necessary moral responsibility of a human service agency that's run by undergraduates." PBHA President Vincent Pan '95-'96 said in an interview this week.

The memos come at a crucial time for PBHA, which runs more than 80 programs staffed by more than 1,700 Harvard student volunteers. The search for an assistant dean of public service and director of Phillips Brooks House (PBH) will come to a head in five interviews next week.

Student leaders said in interviews this week that they have two goals: to insure the integrity of the search process and to become more autonomous through a new structure.

"Because this search is something that we never felt was necessary, and because we haven't been terribly satisfied with how it has gone, we've begun to question why [Phillips] Brooks House is run the way it is," PBHA Treasurer Andrew J. Ehrlich '96 said yesterday.

PBHA has all along opposed the recommendation to combine the College's two-part public service structure under a single dean.

When Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and new Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 insisted on searching for an assistant dean to head the structure, public service leaders offered a list of possible search mittee members. Those too were ignored.

Administrators have repeatedly declined to comment on the future of the public service structure, saying all changes will be in the hands of the new dean. In an e-mail message last night, Lewis said he could not comment on the most-recent memo because he had not yet discussed it with PBHA members.

In the current search process, PBHA members say their wishes are once again being disregarded as the search enters its second round.

While PBHA member are admittedly concerned with preserving their organization's autonomy, the consequences of the appointment have an impact more significant than just one new job.

As a result of last September's Maull-Lewis Report on the Structure of Harvard College, the new dean will not only run Phillips Brooks House but also revamp its structure.

In addition, a faculty standing committee on public service will be created to help the new assistant dean do his job.

If one of the two final candidates from inside Harvard--PBH Director Greg A. Johnson '72 and Assistant Director Ken G. Smith--gets the position of assistant dean, the organization will likely continue as it is, with perhaps more autonomy and increased input from community members.

If one of the three candidates from outside Harvard receives the job--one of whom, a PBHA source said, has been treated royally by the search committee--public service at Harvard will likely be administered by the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), like any other Harvard division.

Currently, PBHA has a nebulous relationship with the FAS. While the organization is supposedly overseen by a faculty committee, PBHA members say that committee has long been inactive.