The ultimate decision about the future of public service at the College rests with Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and with FAS.
Knowles did not comment yesterday on Maull's letter or on the possibility of staff reductions.
An initial version of the Report on the Structure of Harvard College was submitted to Knowles this August. The 78-page document contains suggestions for increasing accountability of student organizations, for boosting house diversity and for revamping academic offices.
The source who worked on the report said yesterday that community service came under scrutiny because of a longstanding perception among the faculty that the two-part community service structure had become cumbersome.
"There have been a number of people saying for a long time that we ought to look at the structure, and that it didn't make sense to have these two pieces," the source said.
Johnson said he was not surprised that PBH had once again become the object of reformers' zeal.
"PBH and public service have undergone these processes [before]--about seven of them in the last five years," he said.
Johnson added that he was not surprised by the scope of the proposed reforms. "I didn't know what the recommendations were going to be until they were mailed out and sent to the press," he said. "I've been at Harvard as an undergraduate and I'm seldom surprised by much."