The PBH executive director said control of the organization has been shuffled back and forth between Harvard's central administration and the faculty of arts and sciences. When Jewett became the chair of the Presidential Faculty Committee in 1986, Johnson said, the dean decided to give financial control of PBH to FAS.

"Unfortunately, we came into the Faculty at the time of budget cutbacks," Johnson said.

Johnson also referred to this committee in his memo.

"[T]here has indeed been a Faculty Committee with ability to exert authority over all aspects of Brooks House operation for may years," he wrote. "The Dean has not seen fit to convene this committee for two years."

But Jewett said last week that he does not chair a standing advisory committee for PBH. He said he does have the power to convene an advisory group, but that he has not done so recently.

"Essentially, since many of the people on that committee are also on the PBH Advisory Committee, we have not met in the last couple of years," he said.

Jewett also said he was not aware of Johnson's memo or of the possibility the executive director's position might be eliminated.

'It's Positive'

Both Johnson and Epstein said yesterday they were pleased by Maull's letter assuring continued staffing levels. But they also said the quality of the staffing should be maintained.

"I think it's positive if there are going to be no decreases," Epstein said yesterday. "I am also concerned that whatever staffing configuration [results] does not represent a decreasing [of] the level of skill in the department."

Epstein and Johnson said the University's method of referring to full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) could lead to an identical staff level in which actual staff skill could be greatly reduced.

"[Maull's letter is] encouraging, but, as Gail has mentioned, an FTE can be construed in a variety of ways," Johnson said.

"We have 13 very sophisticated programs, and we raised three quarters of a million in cash and in-kind donations to keep them out there," Johnson said. "Once the die is cast and they're all ready to go out in the field, you can not have a discontinuity like [reduced staff skill]."

Epstein also said the report's recommendations made future program planning difficult.

"It's not something we can ignore because when it comes to planning, part of the planning my office does is for the short term but part of it has to be for the long term," she said. "[Uncertainty about the future] makes it more complicated to plan, but we're going ahead and planning things and working with student programs."