WE THE PEOPLE

With the adoption of the new Student Council constitution last night an instrument for common action was placed squarely in the hands of the Harvard student body. The most novel provision of the document is section 3, Article V, which requires the Council to give due consideration to any proposal that undergraduates may lay before it, and, in exceptional cases, or on the petition of 500 undergraduates, to hold a referendum on such a proposal.

It has often been complained of in the past that the Student Council is aloof from the general sentiments of the student body. It has been indicated as a cabal, working at exotic measures in secret conclave, responsible only to an apathetic electorate, which has no continuity of thought over a period of weeks, much less from year to year.

Never has it been more possible for the Council to be the legitimate vehicle of student opinion than under the democratic petition-clause of the new constitution. The Council is composed of a comparatively small group of men, and must suffer the fate of all parliaments out of touch with their constituencies unless the members of the University bestir themselves to make their desires and opinions felt.

The influence exerted upon the administrators of the University by the Student Council has always been significant, and the new constitution places this power in the hands of the student body. It would be unfortunate if the traditional Harvard indifference, often bordering upon slothfulness, caused this opportunity to be neglected. The Student Council has presented itself as willing to be a completely responsible body, and the blame will rest clearly upon the student body if it does not become so.