Council members, for the most part, say Faculty debate on the GSA measure would probably not change the council's decision to deny the request. They note that the council, as a body elected by the entire Faculty, is probably representative of Faculty opinions. But some say the impact of a public meeting before the entire Faculty (council meetings are closed) could conceivably tilt debate toward the GSA's stance.

This year's Faculty agenda may center around issues left over from last year, but next year's actually looks fresher. Sidney Verba '53, the new associate dean of the Faculty for undergraduate education and chairman of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), will kick off discussion with CUE on what he calls "the rules relating to college study."

If that sounds like an awfully broad agenda, it's because Verba intends it to be. "Rather than looking at things on a nickle and dime basis," he says, he will look at "the whole structure of [academic] rules to see which ones are inexplicable or inconsistent." Verba says the "full package of proposals" he will eventually present will likely address topics such as honors requirements, make-up exams, regulations for adding and dropping courses, and other issues that turn up in the Handbook of College Rules.

Though he acknowledges that the Faculty's uncrowded agenda might make this "a good year to bring [the package] to the Faculty," Verba says hurrying his deliberations would be "a mistake." Accordingly, his goal is to have his proposals before the council by the year's end, so that they could reach the Faculty a year from now.

But until Verba and his package of new rules arrive to lift the Faculty's meeting schedule out of the doldrums, it looks as if there may be another spate of cancellation notices. At least, that's what John R. Marquand, secretary to the Faculty, predicts. He contrasts this year with last, when--despite the three cancellations--the technology transfer issue got the Faculty off to a "'rip-roaring start" and heated debate about minority hiring and the Third World Foundation kept things interesting. Just one factor prevented the Faculty from meeting more often: a widespread belief that a body as large and unwieldy as the Faculty should not grapple with issues until other bodies--like the Faculty Council--had first simplified them.

Still, Marquand notes, an alternative to cancelling meetings wholesale does exist. Back in the mid-1970s, when the Faculty had "a little bit of a problem" getting its quorum of one-sixth to show up, "there was a feeling that there was so little to do that it would be nice if the Faculty could get together to have tea." And so, each month that meetings were scrapped, assorted professors congregated and sipped tea. With this year's ho-hum agenda, and with a pervasive feeling that the full Faculty shouldn't take on an issue until everyone else has handled it first, it might not be a bad idea to recall that old tradition