* Harvard will continue its generous (and recently considerably expanded) level of support for public service programs.

* Harvard students have long been able to make operational decisions about service programs, and such grass-roots initiative helps to keep the programs vital. The autonomy of student organizations in such decisions will be nurtured and respected in the future as in the past, to the extent permitted by basic concerns for the safety of all participants and sound financial practices.

* Harvard will support the very successful HAND programs, which link Harvard Houses to Cambridge schools and neighborhoods, through this year and into the future.

Student public service efforts have required in the past, and will require in the future, intricate cooperation among students, administrators, donors, faculty and people in the broader community. On the basis of advice received from many quarters for more than a year, we are confident that there is no deep structural problem or crisis in the arrangements for public service at Harvard. Indeed, during the review of 1994 we were told by many students and others that the support public service at Harvard was working well and did not require a major overhaul. Accordingly the modest changes being made now should not disrupt any existing public service activity or program.

We recognize that students and others may nonetheless worry about the administrative colleges that are underway. We are continually consulting with everyone concerned to ensure a smooth transition. The arrangements for public service in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were modified only after extensive consultations, and they must function for a time before further adjustments are considered in the light of experience. Public service programs at Harvard will not benefit from never-ending arguments about administration.

We hope that no actions undertaken by any student group will endanger ongoing public service programs, on which the Cambridge and Boston communities have come to rely and which are so important to many student volunteers. No one should doubt the deep and continued commitment of Harvard University to its undergraduate service programs.

We ask members of the Harvard community to join in welcoming Dean Judith Kidd. She is bringing an open mind and rich experience and knowledge in working with both public service and university organizations. She looks forward to working cooperatively with students on the full range of their remarkable endeavors in public service. We trust that all members of the community will join in cooperating with her, and with us, to move into a future that seeks, in the words of Phillips Brooks, to "unite and strengthen many undertakings which now rather tend to divide the forces which make for good among the students."

Members of the Harvard community and the communities that surround Harvard should feel free to contact us with any concerns they may have.

Harry R. Lewis '68 is Dean of Harvard College; Theda Skocpol is Chair of the Committee on Public Service.