170 to Campaign For Council Seats

More than 170 students submitted position papers to run for Undergraduate Council this year--the second highest number of candidates in the council's eight-year history, former Vice Chair Noam Bramson '90-'91 said yesterday.

Fifteen more candidates are running this year than did last year--and the current total falls less than 10 short of the record number of candidates reached in 1987.

The deadline for nominations was extended one day--from Thursday to Friday--until there were enough candidates to fill every seat in every House and Yard district, Bramson said. The council traditionally extends the nomination deadline until enough candidates file papers, he added.

By Thursday, enough candidates had filed to fill all the seats in every house but Currier and Mather. The one-day extension filled the slates in those houses, and yielded almost 50 more candidates in other houses.

One of the four council districts in the Yard yielded more than 20 candidates--the highest of any district this year.

The 170 candidates will vie for 88 seats in Harvard's only officially recognized undergraduate representative body. Students will elect their council representatives in dining halls October 4 through October 6.

A large number of active, mostly liberal members of last year's council--such as Robert P. Mahnke '89-'90 and Lucy H. Koh '90--are not running for re-election this year for various reasons--some personal and some political.

"Relative to other activities, Undergraduate Council is a waste of time," said Mahnke, who last year chaired the council's services committee. "There are better ways to make Harvard a better place," Mahnke said.

Last year's council term ended with a tumultuous debate about the role of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) on campus. Also last spring, the council lost several thousand dollars when it sponsored a poorly attended concert by folk singer Suzanne Vega.

Many of this year's candidates said that their platforms address the issues of both ROTC and the council's financial responsibilities--both in response to last year's crises.

But some veteran council members downplayed the importance of issues like ROTC in both the election and in this year's council agenda.

"The council will have to clarify its position on ROTC," Bramson said, adding that the council will also address issues of campus security, Harvard's alcohol policy and the planned partial randomization of the housing lottery proposed by Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57.

The only two announced candidates for council chair--Guhan Subramanian '91 and Lori Outzs '91--have both said that they expect ROTC to be an important issue in the council election, but not the only one.

Although many candidates are promising to focus on particular issues if they are elected to the council, others offered more general platforms, saying that they hope to restore respect and moderation to the body.

Veteran council member Sean C. Griffin '90, said he is running again because he hopes to help "bring a more moderate voice" to a council which "tends to be center on everything."

Many new candidates, like Jonathan D. F. Zinman'93, said they are running in an effort to dispelthe council's reputation for "supposedineffectiveness." Zinman said that one of theproblems of running as a first-year student isthat the electorate is not fully aware of theissues facing the council