Council Revised

To The Editors of The Crimson:

I am writing in regard to your May 1st article entitled "Council Debates Rugby Grant, Heckling Policy." Although I have many concerns regarding the misrepresentation of the events of the meeting. I will confine my remarks to the quote attributed to me by Ms. Engelmayer. To the best of my recollection, the actual words are correct, but the context in which she places them completely distort my viewpoint. She writes that

In a heated debate, council members decided not to suspend the new procedures, prompting some to complain that the group had become a "body of rules, not a body that looks at issues," according to Quincy House representative Douglas A. Winthrop, '86.

I do not feel, nor have I ever complained that the Council 'has become' a body of rules, not one of issues. I do not believe that to be true in the least. In fact, the issues with which I have been involved over the last two years on the Council, race relations, sexual harrassment, student-faculty contact, library hours, etc..., have been as remote from procedural concerns as can possibly be. I am an ardent supporter of the Council and strongly feel that an unbiased analysis of the Council will show that it has been remarkably successful in its first two years.

What I did say at Monday's meeting was that the Council should suspend the rules and consider the grant request so as not to appear as a group concerned with rules and not issues. Douglas A. Winthrop '86