Leaders of the College's two largest public service organizations warned University administrators Friday that programs could be delayed if Harvard is not prompt in clarifying its intentions for restructuring their groups.

In the Report on the Structure of Harvard College, which was made public last month, a committee of faculty and administrators argued for a consolidation of the two organizations, the Phillips Brooks House Association and the Office of Public Service.

Under the committee's proposal, the administrative staff of the public service office would be moved to Phillips Brooks.

Four students--PBHA President John B. King, Jr. '96-95, PBHA Board Member Eric D. Dawson '96, and two central coordinators of the Office of Public Services program HAND, Jenna McNeill '95 and Kelly T. Yee '95--issued the warning in a letter Friday to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett and Administrative Dean of the Faculty Nancy L. Maull.

The students pressured the College on the report's recommendation that PBHA and the public service office be put under the direction of a new Assistant Dean for Public Service.

In their letter, the students asked Knowles to establish a timetable for the appointment of the new assistant dean by December 20 of this year.

"If a decision about the time of appointment of the Assistant Dean is not made prior to December 20, 1994, it will be difficult for PBHA to go forward in seeking essential funding for next summer's efforts," the letter reads. "In addition, without clarifying the future of both positions, PBHA and HAND will be reluctant to make other long-term commitments to the communities and schools with which we work."

Reached in his University Hall office yesterday afternoon, Knowles said he had not yet had an opportunity to discuss the letter's contents with Maull and Jewett. But he said the three deans would respond to the concerns raised in the PBHA/HAND letter as soon as possible.

Knowles said yesterday that the choice of an assistant dean would probably wait until after a replacement for Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 is appointed sometime this summer.

"That phasing has not yet been decided," Knowles said. "But I shouldn't be surprised if we did feel that this is an important matter that should be thought of next June or July when the new dean would be in place."

In response to the letter's charge that a change in leadership for student service would disrupt programming, Knowles said he would listen to student leaders' concerns.

"You can't sort of make a change at the last minute, of course not," Knowles said. "My concern is to listen and to hear the range of concerns of all the constituencies."

Meeting

The students met with the three administrators on October 21. A copy of the letter, which students released to The Crimson, asks for a clarification of discussion at that meeting.

In memos to Maull last month, the public service administrators whose jobs were threatened by the report--Director of Public Service Programs Gail L. Epstein and Executive Director of PBH Greg A. Johnson '72--criticized the report's procedures.

"As regards the recommendations of the report, I understand them..to be as follows," Johnson wrote in a memo dated September 8. "1) That the Executive Director of Brooks House, the Director of the Stride Rite Community Service Program, and the College Director of the Office of Public Service Programs be laid off; 2) that an extensive search be made for a new Assistant Dean/Director of Phillips Brooks House; 3) that the Brooks House staff be immediately accesible to 700 additional students thus increasing their work load by a numerical minimum of 44 percent; and 4) that President Rudenstine be asked to seek capital to relieve the FAS of the burden of funding the 10 staff positions which will result from the suggested structure."