Undergraduate protests at Harvard's Commencement exercises are practically an unofficial tradition by now. But the June demonstrations might take on a new twist this year if the newly formed Harvard Coalition of Student Leaders has its way.

The coalition of student representatives from the College and 10 graduate schools hopes to have graduating students from every school in the University don armbands in protest of the nuclear arms race.

Although the protest is not a major event in itself, the council's plans for commencement shows how the group could soon become a major force in student relations with President Bok and the administration.

The coalition is the brainchild of Lisa St. John, President of the School of Public Health Student Coordinating Committee. St. John invited representatives of the individual student governments to the first meeting and has since then acted as the group's chairman.

Coalition members have said that the group will better enable them to receive the University recognition about issues and problems that the individual governments have been unable to resolve.

13 Tubs

Harvard's policy of placing each school on its own financial and administrative footing has separated students enrolled in the different schools. Consequently, student leaders have had difficulty expressing student woes such as inadequate financial aid to the university.

The coalition, which has met three times since its inception in mid-March, has sent a letter to the Corporation calling for partial University divestiture from companies operating in South Africa. Members plan to meet with Bok next month to discuss school-wide financial aid policies and the role of student representation on student-faculty committees.

Credibility Gap

The group's small size and a lack of bureaucracy have resulted in smoothly run meetings, but the coalition still has a credibility problem.

Two schools--the Kennedy School of Government and the Graduate School of Design--have yet to send delegates to the meetings, and the coalition has not decided how it will fund itself.

At last Monday's meeting, members agreed that each school will contribute "what it can" to the coalition to pay for administrative costs incurred between now and next fall.

But Daniel W. McDonald, president of the Kennedy School Student Association, said last week that he has received only short. notice before each of the council's meetings and could not make time to attend.

And though none of the individual student governments have opposed the idea of the umbrella organization, the members of the group still don't know what the coalition's status within the University will be. In fact, Business School Student Association President Neil Smith has abstained from voting several times because he had not discussed the issues at hand with his constituency.

Until the group can determine its exact relationship with the individual student governments, it will probably have to remain content with its status as an advisory body.