The assembly has the usual committees, and, in addition, has six special representatives from several campus minority organizations.

The Student Assembly has just received what administrators call "provisional" recognition from CHUL. For the first year, the assembly had to sign for meeting rooms under false pretences, something the administrators winked at because they did not oppose the Assembly, but just were hesitant to recognize it.

One reason for this hesitancy is a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling forbidding universities receiving federal funds to recognize student governments with special seats for minority members. Right now, that case is being appealed.

In the meantime, administrators, at the request of the Assembly, are planning a major review of student government at Harvard--the first since 1969, when the student-advisory committees were set up.

The Student Assembly is looked down on by many students, but many have not abandoned hope. Its members tend to be slightly to the left of the rest of the students, who don't exactly follow its actions closely. The Assembly, since it has no formal powers, is relegated to writing and voting on resolutions, organizing petition drives, taking polls and other similar activities.

The elections generate more interest than the CHUL and CUE elections, but not that much more. Again, campaigning is implicitly condemned. A political party formed last year called the Coalition for a Democratic University (CDU), which managed to elect about 35 of its members to the Assembly and, consequently, to elect a CDU chairman and vice-chairman in the Assembly elections.

One House boycotted the Assembly because the Assembly, the delegates claimed, was controlled by the CDU. CDU members pointed out that the party can barely control its own members, much less the Assembly.