Proposed changes in honors requirements, which officials estimate would cause at most a modest reduction in the percentage of eligible seniors, would increase the number of courses counted when grade-point averages are computed, and impose higher minimum standards for certain degrees. Some Faculty members are believed to want more drastic changes designed to take an even larger bite out of the honor group than would the planned amendments, which would first affect freshmen entering next fall.

MATEP

As community activists in Brookline and Mission Hill aim their guns for another series of legal assaults on Harvard's $350-million Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP), the power plant's diesel electric generators are finally coming to life this spring for the first time in years. MATEP, designed to simultaneously produce steam, chilled water and electricity for hospitals in the Medical Area, has proved a costly 14-year headache for the University.

The startup of the diesels means that the 6.4 megawatt MATEP can finally start achieving the energy efficiency for which it was designed. Approval of the diesels came earlier this month when a state agency ruled that while poisonous exhaust from MATEP's stack could give four people lung cancer over the 40-year operating life of the plant, that risk is not unreasonable.

The ruling marked a big win for Harvard, which has held all along that emissions from the Brookline Ave, plant do not pose a severe public health threat. However, MATEP must finish up about three to six months of testing the engines before it can get its final operating permit from the state. Residents of neighboring Brookline and Mission Hill--who have been battling MATEP since 1975--say they will go to Superior Court once more to keep the diesels dead.

Spring Sports

For Harvard's athletic squads, the last two years have been among the finest in recent history. But after what some are expecting this spring, those two seasons might not even merit an Honorable Mention.

That's because a record number of Crimson teams, could send the Varsity Club scrambling to rewrite the record books between now and June. For at least five, and as many as 10 Harvard squads should garner highly coveted Ivy titles, as well as a bevy of Harvard records.

What's more, the national spotlight could shine brighter than ever on the clubs across the Rivah.

Certainly, the one to watch and everyone's midseason bet for Team of the Year is the men's hockey squad Tabbed by many as the best in Coach Bill (leary's tenure and that includes the national runners up of two years ago), the 1985 edition has already clinched a spot in postseason play.

One of only two Ivy teams never to win a men's basketball crown, the Crimson is, at least, a safe bet to garner an NIT postseason bid, if not an NCAA berth.

Lost in the glitter of the history making men's hockey and men's basketball teams are a host of other winter squads that are making room in their own trophy cases.

The best wrestling squad in John Lee's 15 years is currently grappling in the Indoor Athletic Building, and there's a good chance the matmen too might and a way into the national tourney.

The men's swimming team and both the men's and women's squash teams are in usual top notch form, and anything less than three Ivy titles and a few national crowns from these clubs would be a big surprise.

Meanwhile, if the women's ice hockey team can hang on to its league-leading position, it'll snatch its first Ivy crown.