"The effect of asking for a referendum is to delay the decision on ROTC," Lipset explained. "If it turns out that people want to vote at the meeting, then I don't want to hold up the action."

Lipset said he had originally requested a place on the docket for his resolution. But when Wilcox--who was in charge of drawing up the docket--asked him to withdraw the motion in order to streamline the docket, Lipset said he agreed to bring it up from the floor.

Wilcox said yesterday that he had placed the HUC resolution on the docket "simply as a mechanism for getting student opinion before the Faculty."

"The SFAC has Faculty members on it," Wilcox said last night, "but the HUC has none. One of the major questions that developed as we placed items on the docket was what role students' opinions would play. Under the present system, there is no mechanism for students to place their views on the floor." Wilcox said that he will not speak for or against the HUC position, but will merely introduce it.

The man who will offer the CEP's proposal today--Wilson--said yesterday that he thinks "the general Faculty sentiment is in favor of changing ROTC's academic status. The real question is how best to do it."

Wilson said that the CEP's plan--forcing ROTC courses to reapply for credit rather than flatly denying credit as SFAC asks--is "a better way, more consistent with Faculty principles, of achieving essentially the same goal as the other proposal."

But Wilson added that the CEP's reapplication scheme might not have the same effect as SFAC's resolution. "This question of outside control of courses comes primarily with policy-oriented courses," Wilson said. "No one really cares if the Pentagon controls courses on navigation or technology."

For these "policy" courses, Wilson said, there could be two ways for departments to re-grant credit. "Departments could offer the courses with one of their own regular instructors," Wilson said, "or else they could assign some military instructors in whose credentials they had confidence--for instance, someone who had earned a Ph.D. from Harvard."

"The more likely solution--the one I hope for," Wilson said, "would be to have the Pentagon designate some standard Harvard courses as acceptable for ROTC credit.