Earlier last month Hellman said the present admissions system might constitute a "grave risk" to the University, although he could not say for certain that the University might be successfully sued.

Tosteson formed the ad hoc committee last fall, overriding a faculty vote to withhold changes in the minority admissions process until Hellman's committee completes its study.

Steiner and Archibald Cox '34, Loeb University Professor, told Tosteson last fall that the Bakke decision might be applied to some aspects of the admissions process used at Harvard.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bakke, a white medical student applicant who argued that minority admissions at the University of California at Davis medical school discriminated against him.

The Court's decision found admissions quotas for minority students discriminatory, but declared race an acceptable factor in the selection process.

Derrick A. Bell, professor of Law, said yesterday that opponents of the former admissions policy believed the Med School's central committee had only served as a "rubber stamp" to the minority subcommittee's decisions.

The committee's changes attempt to create "a more neutral process," which makes race "only one of several factors," Bell said.

"We would be in much more trouble if race was the whole factor in admissions," he said, adding, "This way we know we are safely within the ambit of the Supreme Court decision."

Dr. Oglesby Paul '38, director of admissions at the Medical School and an ad hoc committee member, said yesterday the committee's recommendations do not mark a radical departure from past procedure, but primarily attempt to resolve legal differences between Steiner and the faculty. "These changes aren't anything earth-shaking," he added.

Paul added that the number of minority applicants is higher this year than last. This year over 500 minority students applied out of a total pool of about 4100 applicants. Last year 350 of the total 3700 applicants were minority students