In a last-ditch effort to stave off the impending renovations of the Freshman Union, a group of alums met in Mass. Hall on Monday afternoon with President Neil L. Rudenstine, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs Fred L. Glimp '50.

In the 50-minute meeting, the alums asked the administrators to reconsider their plans to subdivide the Great Hall of the Union into three sections.

The alums, all of whom are members of the Committee to Save the Great Hall of the Harvard Union, said that the meeting was cordial but disappointing.

"My clear impression is that their position is firm," said Tweed Roosevelt '64, the chair of the committee. "They are not willing to delay it."

But the committee members vowed to fight on.

"We are not happy with that and are continuing to pursue our efforts for them to reconsider the plans," he added.

Reached in his office last night, Knowles refused to answer any questions about the meeting. Rudenstine could not be reached for comment.

Administrators have previously defended the subdivision of the Great Hall, scheduled to begin later this month. They have said that the resulting Humanities Center will provide enormous academic benefits to the University.

According to Roosevelt, Rudenstine had clearly been considering the objections raised by the committee in letters and faxes sent to his office over the past few months.

But members of the committee said that they simply agreed to disagree with the administrators.

"We could see their point and they could see our point," committee Secretary H.A. Crosby Forbes '50 said.

According to several alums, Knowles was particularly upset when the alums described the razing of the Union as "irreversible."

"He made the point that someday the Great Hall could be rebuilt," Roosevelt added.

But the alums objected, saying that this month's renovations would leave the Great Hall permanently disfigured.

"If you wreck the roof, cut the room into three pieces, just leaving a small part of it, it seems pretty irreversible to me," Forbes said.

Other topics of discussion included alumni dissatisfaction with the overnight razing of Carey Cage and the criticism of the University's lack of publication concerning both this and the Great Hall.