"Harvard's resources are very analogous to your home resources--your home phone, your home mail address," he said. "You want to separate your private life from your business life."

Lewis stressed the change is not intended to encourage, but merely permit, student businesses.

"This is not a statement one way or the other," he said. "We have got to do one step at a time."

Lewis said the Handbook change, which has been approved by the Administrative Board, was spurred by the growth of the Internet. Online business ventures allow students to conduct a great deal of activity from their own computers, which Lewis said can be less disruptive than brick-and-mortar businesses.

According to Lewis, the College can forbid activity that interferes with the educational experience, without forbidding all businesses activity.

"We asked ourselves, 'why do we have this regulation on the books?,'" he said.

Schleier-Smith said he didn't think student entrepreneurialism conflicts with the College's liberal arts focus.