"I don't have a preset agenda for the committee," Skocpol said this week.

Because the committee was commissioned by the faculty, it consists of "approximately six faculty" and "at least three students. Its faculty membership currently stands at five, including Skocpol, and its student membership at three.

But representatives of the Undergraduate Council plan to submit an amendment to the Faculty Council in February changing the committee's role from "oversee[ing] all public service and volunteers programs" to "advis[ing] and support[ing] undergraduate public service and volunteer programs."

The amendment, to be submitted by Undergraduate Council member Edward B. Smith III '97, also proposes that the number of students be raised to five.

Skocpol said she had not seen the amendment, but said that she would be "strongly opposed to anything that increased the size of the committee" because that might make it unwieldy.

However, Skocpol said that she was open to dialogue.

"I'm perfectly happy to have a discussion of the student-faculty committee in the Faculty Council at any time," she said.

If submitted in February, the amendment could not be placed on the docket until the March 12 meeting of the full Faculty, said Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox Jr.

By that point, the committee will already have started meeting.

As Smith said, "I guess [approving the amendment] would have a lot to do with how willing the full Faculty would be to change the charge of a committee that had already been meeting for several months, and I doubt that."

An amendment with slightly different language failed at December's Faculty meeting.

Hopes for HAND

PBHA is far from the only player in the public service controversy. HAND, a program run through the Harvard houses, is losing two professional staffers on June 30 and could be facing uncertainties in the months ahead.

In a meeting today with Kidd, the HAND central coordinators will broach the subject of hiring someone else to help run the program after Epstein and Read leave.

Epstein's office assists not only with the HAND program but with all public service programs at the College, which includes spending a great deal of time on PBH matters.