The Harvard Undergraduate Council voted last night to create a joint ad hoc "discussion group" with the Committee on Houses to explore the role of student participation in university decision-making.

Members were divided over the best approach to the problem of student representation on faculty committees.

"It's absurd that they should review student affairs and not have student members," one participant said. Others felt that "rhetoric" and "institutionalization" would deprive the new committee of much of its practical value as a place for dialogue between "two generations."

The decision to establish a new student-faculty group came after the reading of a letter from Edward T. Wilcox, a member of the Committee's on Houses. The letter explained the Committee's rejection of an HPC proposal to seat three non-voting student members.

The letter offered to use students to provide "expert testimony." But Wilcox wrote that since "only a fraction" of the Committee's time is spent on undergraduate affairs, regular undergraduate participation would not be profitable.

The HUC also voted to join the National Student Association. An NSA co-ordinator with non-voting, ex-officio membership on the HUC will be elected from the student body.