Six Incumbents Lose U.C. Seats

Six incumbents, including outgoing Secretary Randall A. Fine '96, failed to win seats in last week's Undergraduate Council elections.

The list of 84 students who won slots, however, does include four veterans who said they intend to run for council president.

Outgoing Chair Michael P. Beys '94 placed second in Mather House, while presidential challenger and outgoing Treasurer Carey W. Gabay '94 topped the ballot in Quincy House. Melissa Garza '94 was bested by only one competitor in Winthrop House, and Mark D. McKay '94 claimed Winthrop House's fourth council slot after transferring from Kirkland House.

Under the council's new constitution that was approved last spring, the title of chair has been changed to president. Council members will elect their new president at the first general meeting this Sunday.

Fine, who has recently been the subject of investigations regarding his conduct as a council executive, lost his re-election bid in North House.

Beys chastised voters for their rejection of Fine. "The loss of Randy Fine is a huge loss for the student body," he said yesterday.

"Randy was so effective and he got so much accomplished," Beys added. "But at a place like Harvard where everybody is used to being a leader, I guess that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way."

McKay, however, disputed Fine's contributions to the council. "I don't think we're going to miss Randy," he said.

The election results were announced Saturday. Election supervisor R. Gin Lo '94, who did not run for re-election to the council, said that everything went as smoothly as possible considering the council's late start in organizing the vote.

Twenty-four women were elected, up from 21 last year. Other new faces will include those of the 21 first-year student representatives.

"I was very happy with the quality of people who were elected," Beys said. "The turnout was great--134 students ran--and I think we can see now a nice variety of people on the council."

Beys said the increased diversity of this year's council "is a sign that, despite our negative publicity, the U.C. is in vogue."

Council member Jennifer W. Grove '94 received the most votes in Kirkland House, despite her allegations that Beys tried to sabotage her campaign.

Grove said the three-day extension to announce candidacy, imposed earlier thismonth by Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III,allowed for a qualitatively better pool ofcandidates.

Extension Raised Competition

"The extension made the races a lot morecompetitive and ensured that the people who wereelected were the people who really want to be onthe council, people who were out therecampaigning," she said.

McKay said that in past years, executive-seathopefuls would "stack the council," persuadingtheir friends to run in order to increase theirbases of support within the council once theexecutive elections were held.

"The extension was critical," he said. "Withoutit we would have had a council very similar tothat of past years, when incumbents would recruittheir friends to run and not too many other peoplecared."

While there are a lot of familiar names amongthe winners, McKay said he was pleasantlysurprised with the results. "As opposed to pastyears, everyone on the council this year seemslike they really want to be there," he said.

While McKay agreed that Fine had been a "largepresence" on the council, he said he was veryhappy with the caliber of students running forexecutive seats next week.

"We're going to be much more effective thisyear," McKay predicted.

Garza praised the increased number of women onthe council, and agreed that the diversity of thecandidate pool reflected the deadline extension.

But Beys contended that last Monday's "mad rushof applications" was not necessarily indicative ofa more varied group of candidates. "These mighthave been people who would have turned [theirapplications] in on Friday but just waited aroundwhen they found out they had extra time," he said.

Beys said it was ironic that Dunster House,where the initial request for an extensionoriginated, yielded only three official candidatesfor their five allotted seats.

Other races proved far more competitive,resulting in the upsets of incumbent candidates.Eliot and North Houses had the most candidates,with 14 and 12 respectively

Extension Raised Competition

"The extension made the races a lot morecompetitive and ensured that the people who wereelected were the people who really want to be onthe council, people who were out therecampaigning," she said.

McKay said that in past years, executive-seathopefuls would "stack the council," persuadingtheir friends to run in order to increase theirbases of support within the council once theexecutive elections were held.

"The extension was critical," he said. "Withoutit we would have had a council very similar tothat of past years, when incumbents would recruittheir friends to run and not too many other peoplecared."

While there are a lot of familiar names amongthe winners, McKay said he was pleasantlysurprised with the results. "As opposed to pastyears, everyone on the council this year seemslike they really want to be there," he said.

While McKay agreed that Fine had been a "largepresence" on the council, he said he was veryhappy with the caliber of students running forexecutive seats next week.

"We're going to be much more effective thisyear," McKay predicted.

Garza praised the increased number of women onthe council, and agreed that the diversity of thecandidate pool reflected the deadline extension.

But Beys contended that last Monday's "mad rushof applications" was not necessarily indicative ofa more varied group of candidates. "These mighthave been people who would have turned [theirapplications] in on Friday but just waited aroundwhen they found out they had extra time," he said.

Beys said it was ironic that Dunster House,where the initial request for an extensionoriginated, yielded only three official candidatesfor their five allotted seats.

Other races proved far more competitive,resulting in the upsets of incumbent candidates.Eliot and North Houses had the most candidates,with 14 and 12 respectively