"I don't want to come back at my fifth reunion and see PBHA as a few top-down big sibling programs," says PBHA President Andrew J. Ehrlich '96-'97.

The Conflicts

The current issue of conflict involves the creation of a governing board for PBHA.

PBHA officials say they want to create a board with voting non-student members in order to increase their fundraising capabilities and to strengthen their organization.

"We need a board, first for long-term continuity, second, for institutional memory, and third to acquire diversity of opinion," Ehrlich says.

Epps wrote in a May 21 letter to PBHA alumni that if students continued with their plans to create a voting non-student board, they would violate the rules of the student handbook and thus lose their status as a student organization.

Epps emphasized that the rule is significant because he uses it to keep out organizations such as the Boston Church of Christ that violate student autonomy.

But students say the technicality of the handbook is simply a cover for Harvard's larger concern of controlling public service.

"I think this is bull; that this stops with Dean Epps or Dean [of the College Harry R.] Lewis ['68]," King says. "My sense is that something with this high stakes, there's got to be involvement at higher levels."

"Dean [of the Faculty Jeremy R.] Knowles has tried to say he is not involved, [but decisions are] not being made without input from the president's office because they are going to be called with the fallout," King adds.

The new board met for the first time last Friday. It includes eight students, eight members representing faculty and alumni, Judith H. Kidd, the new assistant dean for public service, and a representative of the president's office.

Epps acknowledges that Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) has been granted an exception to the rule which requires students to be the only voting members of a governing board.

According to HSA President Matt Heid '97, HSA has seven students and 14 nonstudents who are voting members of its board.

Furthermore, in the case of HSA, this board has full power over the organization and picks its student president.

PBHA officials say that the HSA board has far more control than its board will ever possess. All of the members of the PBHA board will be selected by students and will also be subject to impeachment by students (with the exception of the appointed administrators).