Lee and the Council

To the Editors of the Crimson:

You are to be applauded for your interesting and informative article on Kenneth E. Lee '89, who, as Undergraduate Council chair, serves as the primary representative of the entire Harvard undergraduate community. For years, we've been hearing the council complain about its lack of respectability and legitimacy as a social force on this campus. Its attempts to initiate or influence action on such issues as divestment, minority and women hiring, and the membership of final clubs are respectable, but, it claims, these cries for change have often fallen on deaf ears. We, as students, also have been perplexed as to why the administration has cast a light eye over many of the council's petitions.

Your article has shed some light on this quandry. Perhaps the council itself is part of the reason it is not taken as seriously as it should be. For example, your article said that Lee served on the FAS Standing Committee on the Use of Libraries. It is ironic to find that his concern for the library system is demonstrated by an irrational desire to vandalize Lamont because he "hates it." It's not surprising that people in his dining hall call him "a fool." Perhaps they have seen him at work in Lamont.

It is good to know that the council unanimously reelected a person with such a constructive record of social "action." We realize that his campaign was unopposed, but is this the way that undergraduates should "take a more aggressive stand on bigger... and... more important issues."

We are not trying to blame the ineffectiveness of the council on Ken Lee alone. There are a number of factors that have contributed. Still, the behavior of the council, and, especially, its chair, influence the way Harvard undergraduates are viewed by the faculty of this institution and the nation at large. Lee's misplaced pride in his vandalism is offensive to us, and in no way improves the student body's standing with the administration. We would hope Lee might cease his behavior to make it more fitting of the chief representative of Harvard undergraduates. William H. Dillon '91   Philip D. Fraissinet '91   Eldon E. Johnson '92   Shannon L. Meyer '91