"It was my impression that the Director of Office of Public Service and the Director of PBH were to be included in such a review," Ehrlich says.
Some students have even suggested that Knowles never had any intention of keeping his promise.
"The thing you have to understand is that...administrators lie," Pan says.
"Throughout the year I was president, there was such a pattern of lying and disingenuousness," King says.
History of Conflict
Relations between the University and PBHA have never been rosy. Past PBHA students have also found themselves fighting against Harvard's interests.
In 1986, a PBHA program called Cambridge Youth Enrichment Project (CYEP), which helped organize tenants to fight against their landlords, became a sticking point between Harvard and the city of Cambridge.
The program was underfunded by the University, a fact that many Cambridge residents resented. The Cambridge City Council then passed a bill denouncing Harvard for its refusal to support PBHA.
In the end, President Derek C. Bok was forced to make a deal with the city of Cambridge in which Harvard agreed to match the city's $16,000 donation to CYEP.
In the late '80s, a PBHA committee called the Committee on Economic Change worked to organize the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).
PBHA organized meetings for HUCTW in Phillips Brooks House against University officials' wishes.
Liability Insurance
The dispute that PBHA members say caused the University to centralize power over public service was one of liability.
In the summer of 1994, PBHA began impeachment proceedings against Harvetta E. Nero '96, secretary of PBHA's board of directors, for violating the association's driving policy.
Nero was one of several staffers who were involved in accidents that jeopardized the organization's insurance policy.
According to King, Harvard refused to renew insurance coverage of the approximately 18 vans PBHA rents during the summer unless the association's board took prompt action to change the vehicle policy of who could drive its vans.
The PBHA cabinet met in a four-hour emergency session and passed a new policy that required drivers found at fault in an accident in an association van to have their certification revoked until they were recertified.
Nero's problem was one of a series of cases over the years that have pitted PBHA against the administration, a battle that may soon be nearing a resolution.
"I'm very upbeat about the progress of the negotiations," Ehrlich says. "I'm confident we will reach an agreement."