Goyish, Part II

I am writing to applaud Gil Lahav's op-ed titled "A Goyish Election" that appeared on Saturday. Just like Gil, and as a fellow candidate from Quincy House seeking a spot on the Undergraduate Council, I felt extremely disappointed in the unprofessional manner in which the U.C. elections were conducted. Gil's article only refreshed my disappointment.

Not only should the U.C. take the blame for the poor job done in publicizing the elections, but it should also take responsibility for its display of utter inconsideration towards those candidates observing Yom Kippur and thus choosing not to campaign on the night before the elections.

We, Harvard students, don't miss any opportunities to condemn Harvard as an institution in instances when Harvard policy is geared toward the interests of the adherents to one particular creed. Yet, interestingly enough, the scheduling of the U.C. elections indicated that even when we the students are in charge, we perform the same degree of neutrality that Harvard University is plagued by. But that is beside the point.

In his article, Gil described an incident he witnessed during the voting process which I found quite disturbing: he saw the person responsible for collecting the voting slips (who, upon further inquiry, proved to be the Quincy House treasurer, Kaushik Das) offering voters his opinions of who the most suitable candidates were. The story was further confirmed by other Quincy House residents.

When I talked to Kaushik regarding the matter, his responses varied from denial to "I might have only told a couple of friends" to "nobody told [the house committee] what I should be or should not be doing." (I guess Kaushik needed explicit instructions on how to conduct an election fairly.)

Frankly, being or not being on the Undergraduate Council does not bear much significance in my personal life. I am not an egomaniac politician. Nor am I a "Gov jock" looking for resume-related experience. I am not asking for another set of elections, either (even though any sane person would agree that there are legitimate gounds for doing so).

I just observed something that I thought was wrong and unfair, something that I expected to witness in elections in a remote Middle Eastern dictatorship like Syria, and not on the campus of an elite learning institution. And I felt compelled to reflect upon it. The U.C. "elections" or "pseudo-elections"? You be the judge. Kamran Rokhsar '94