Council

To the Editor of the Crimson:

A lot of people around the university apparently think that the Undergraduate Council should be an organization concerned with student issues only.

They're right. That's what the council is supposed to be for. The problem is that some of these people for some reason seem to think that Divestment is a "political" issue rather than a "student" one, and is therefore not one with which the council should be concerned.

To frame the issue in such a way is very misleading. Divestment is indeed a political issue. But it is most definitely a "student" issue as well. These two categories are not mutually exclusive.

What could be of more fundamental concern to students here than whether or not we are to have a say in our university's investment policy?

It's not as if the council would be taking a side in a Congressional race or taking a stand for or against U.S. involvement in Central America.

If, for some reason, Harvard students and members of the council were to decide that students should not have a say in whether or not the school should divest from companies with holdings in South Africa--that this should be left completely up to the seven members of "the Corporation"--okay. But this should at least be decided through discussion of the issue, rather than by ignoring it.

So let's stop all the alarm about keeping the UC out of "political" issues. Trying to somehow avoid a "political" issue which is of as much concern to students at Harvard as any other is both arbitrary and ridiculous. Lane A. Kenworthy '86