Despite the brisk weather yesterday afternoon, about 750 students, faculty and community members gathered in Harvard Yard at a Phillips Brooks House Association, Inc. (PBHA) rally to protest the University's alleged lack of regard for student input in the search for the new assistant dean of public service.

Students in PBHA, the student board of Phillips Brooks House (PBH), said they organized the rally because they were disappointed at the appointment of Judith H. Kidd as the new assistant dean of public service and director of PBH.

The rally, by far one of the largest at Harvard in recent memory, drew not only backers of PBH but supporters of an ethnic studies department, a multicultural student center and rent control, as well as many curious passers-by.

"Harvard is not the administration," PBHA President Vincent Pan '95-'96 said in his opening remarks to the fervent students gathered. "Everyone I see here today--this is Harvard."

PBHA members said last night that they collected 1,100 green attendance slips and, based on that number, estimated that 2,000 people watched the rally. But Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson estimated the crowd of protesters at between 600 and 700, and a cursory survey of the crowd at its height indicated that the number was about 750.

Decorations for the rally included balloons tied to poles in the Yard, placards reading, "Harvard Keep Your Hands off PBH" and "Student Need, Not Harvard Greed," as well as an orange bandanna tied around John Harvard's calf.

Although undergraduates were consulted in the search process, many public service student leaders have said that Dean of Harvard College Harry R. Lewis '68 ignored their input in choosing Kidd instead of long-time PBH Executive Director Greg A. Johnson '72. They also have said that PBH did not need restructuring in the first place.

Lewis did not attend the rally yesterday because of a previously scheduled commitment: "They didn't check my calendar," he said earlier this week.

In an e-mail message yesterday, Lewis said he could not comment on the rally because he did not attend it. But in regard to a question about the number of people who attended the protest, the dean wrote: "Isn't that at most a fifth of the number expected, and about half the number of students (1700) that are claimed as members of PBHA?"

Robert Coles '50, Agee professor of social ethics and a staunch supporter of PBHA, said at the rally that Lewis' statement about checking his calendar was callous.

"Let us pray for that person's soul," Coles said of Lewis. "There was a moment in the Bible when it was said that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, and let us remember that--those of you who are big shots, let us remember."

Professor of Sociology Theda Skocpol, who chairs the newly-estab- lished student-faculty committee on public service, had a meeting scheduled yesterday in Princeton, N.J., but decided to stay for the rally.

"I just couldn't go out of town," Skocpol said before the rally began. "I couldn't miss the demonstration."

She said after the rally that she did not understand exactly what the students were angry about.

"I still didn't hear really specifically what people are concerned about except for, of course, the high value they place on Greg Johnson and Gail Epstein," Skocpol said. "That's water under the bridge." Johnson and Epstein will be let go in June as part of the restructuring.

Students returned to their dining halls last night to find copies of a letter from Lewis and Skocpol, offering what they cited as evidence of Harvard's commitment to student public service. The letter was distributed to checkers in each house.