* The greater complexity of the programs leads to greater concerns about safety, liability and responsibility.

* "Representatives of the Faculty have little voice in directions or priorities among public service activities."

* All programs under Harvard sponsorship must proceed with "appropriate Faculty and administrative oversight," the report reads.

Ironically, Pan says conflicts with the administration come after what he considers to be the most successful summer in PBHA's history.

The organization's summer programs, which are continuations of its year-round service projects, were better run and better organized than every before, Pan says.

"The quality of services provided was much better across the board," he explains. "Whether having more training sessions, stricter guidelines in terms of water safety, vehicle use or first aid... It was more focused on the community.

With improvements coming from inside the organization rather than from FAS leadership, members of the PBHA board assert that the College's public service reform has become dominated by a concern for control rather than for accountability.

"Why, given that there's an individual [Johnson] who has been extremely successful in public service [at Harvard], do we need to make that individual reapply for his job?" Ehrlich asked in an interview yesterday.

Some have speculated that the restructuring comes because Johnson is not known among administration members as a "team player," Ehrlich said.

That could be a strike against him, he added.

For instance, an October 19, 1993, memo from Johnson, Director of Public Service Gail L. Epstein and Chair of the PBH Advisory Board Anne Peretz outlines possible cuts in PBH programs in response to a request of then-dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 to "muddle through" without two additional staff members due to FAS financial straits.

In the memo and in person, Johnson presented the administration with an ultimatum: Either give PBH two new staff members, or make the cuts in programming.

PBH was granted the staff members, but according to Ehrlich and Johnson, Johnson's suggestion has come up in a negative light in search committee discussions.

"I see what I did at that point as an appropriate and positive thing, something I should be rewarded for," Johnson said yesterday. "If that is used as a negative criterion in evaluating my candidacy [for the assistant deanship], then what that says is that a positive criteria would have been that someone in a similar situation would not have said that."

That kind of management--"pretending everything is well when it isn't"--is dangerous and is not the way PBH should be run, Johnson said.