Earlier this month, Johnson and Epstein responded to these recommendations with memos attacking this proposal. They said the report, if accepted, would hurt the College's public service programs.

In his memo Johnson said he believed one of the report's recommendations to be: "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 be laid off."

Johnson is the executive director of PHB and the director of the Stride Rite Community Service Program.

And in an interview last week, Johnson also expressed his dissatisfaction with the report's recommendation that the positions be consolidated.

"[The report] doesn't ask to combine [the programs] in any integrated fashion," he said. "It just says they can have access to the 10 PBH staff members."

In the event the report's recommendations are approved, Johnson said PBH would need additional staff and funding. Without new resources, the organization would not be able to support the additional 700 student volunteers currently overseen by the Office of Public Service Programs, he said.

"PBH and myself think that [other programs] are welcome to apply for membership as a committee and to obtain votes and resources like any other committee," he said. "But there's a limit to what we can do without further resources--and those resources are vehicles, funding, staffing and space."

But the report as submitted makes no provision to expand these resources. Instead, the document suggests administering all of the College's public organizations through Phillips Brooks House to better increase communication and oversight.

"[W]ith the greater complexity of the programs, dealing with ever more serious social problems, come increased concern over issues of safety, liability, responsibility for other peoples' children and the like," the report reads.

Active Role

In past months, the University has taken an increasingly active role in the oversight of public service.

For example, the University Insurance Office is crucial in helping to secure insurance for the vans PBH uses in its 51 community service programs. After student members of the Phillips Brooks House Association were involved in 24 accidents this summer, Director of Insurance Annemarie Thomas attended their cabinet meeting to ask the organization to tighten its vehicles policy.

"There are rules for driving the autos," Thomas said after leaving that meeting last week. "The reason that we're developing the rules is that we're concerned about the safety of children."

The report not only recommends the consolidation of the two programs, but suggests that FAS create a "Standing Committee on Public Service" which would report to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

But Johnson said last week that just such a committee for the oversight of public service has existed under the control of Jewett since Johnson began working for PBH in 1979.