The rift between Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) and the University administration showed signs of narrowing yesterday, as both sides offered new compromises toward ending their feud.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III had threatened to remove PBHA's standing as a student group if they insisted on creating a board of directors with non-student voting members.

Epps said yesterday that he would not insist on appointing Assistant Dean of Public Service Judith H. Kidd as executive director of PBHA, another sore point with students.

Instead, Epps said he would appoint another "administrator for PBHA" who would be solely in charge of overseeing the public service organization.

The administrator would be chosen by a search committee which would include students.

"They have to give up the notion of appointing somebody called the 'executive director," said Epps. "We would give up the request that they elect Judith Kidd [as the director] that their current bylaws specify."

Epps said he agrees with the students' arguments that Kidd's duties as assistant dean of public service prevent her from devoting the time to PBHA that student leaders say is necessary.

But he does not want to allow the students to have final decision-making in the hiring of an executive director, as they proposed.

However, the new administrator would still report to the University administration. To student leaders of PBHA, that is unacceptable.

"The main issue is not how they're chosen--there is no question that they will be well chosen--but who do they report to?" said Andrew J. Ehrlich '96-'97, the president of PBHA.

"If their job is to be supporting PBHA's programs and students, they need to be accountable to PBHA," he said.

"The issues for us are accountability and responsibility, which we don't feel an administrator can have working for two separate corporations," said PBHA treasurer Roy E. Bahat '97.

Although he will not yield on his ban on non-student voting members on the governing board, Epps expressed his willingness to sit on the board.

He also said that Kidd and Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol are also amenable to board positions. Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 would also appoint a member of the board.

Student groups are not usually allowed to have non-student members on their governing boards. One exception is Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) because of the complex skills needed to run the business organization.