Lowell House Nominations

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am writing to describe a recent incident which, I feel, illustrates perfectly the basic fault that underlies the Student Council's much-discussed shortcomings.

April 16 the members of the Lowell House Student Council-designated election committee trooped into the dining hall a little after 7 p.m., a time when there could not have been more than 50 people present. Undeterred by this, the leader of the group announced that nominations for House representative to the Student Council would now be entertained. There was a short pause, following which the committee members began to nominate each other in a desultory manner. Finally, someone in the back of the room got up to challenge the quorum.

This, apparently, was all right by the committee, for it then closed the meeting and stalked out of the dining hall. The reason became apparent the next day, when a small notice appeared outside the dining hall pointing out that due to the lack of a quorum, the committee had nominated its own slate of candidates, and that anyone else desiring to get in on the act could file a petition. By Wednesday, even this notice had disappeared, and I warrant that not more than a tenth of the Lowell House electorate is aware that new House candidates for the Council have been proposed.

All this illustrates the farcical nature of the Council elective system. Harvard men are chronically uninterested in Council activities, and show little concern for the Council's personnel or their manner of election. Therefore, the whole subject of the Council has been forfeited into the hands of that most ludicrous of all undergraduate types, the Student Politician. As the Lowell House election incident shows, the Council has become a closed group, dedicated only toward furthering its own ends. The fact that most students aren't interested in exercising their franchise to alter this situation is merely an additional argument for making the Council an appointive body, thus returning it to its proper function as an advisory group. George L. Wrenn '50