U.C. Forecast: Cloudy at Best

The Undergraduate Council is back in session and, like a slick new car just off a Detroit assembly line, it's got a whole new look. Unfortunately, like many a revamped American cruiser, it has a shaky model history to go with it.

Last year's Re-evalutation Committee did succeed in making changes in the Council's structure. From an oscillating half-dozen committees, the U.C. has slimmed down to three: Campus Life, Student Affairs, and Finance (Grants). According to the new bylaws, each house and each first-year district will have exactly one seat on the Finance Committee--a total of 18 members. The Campus Life Committee was the choice of approximately 25 new members. Since the U.C.'s magic membership number is 88, approximately half of its personnel will be devoted to Student Affairs.

It's hard to imagine running a committee of 40 or 50 people. Even in the halls of government to which so many zealous Council members aspire, few committees can boast of a membership half that size. On the bright side, it won't be a Washington nursery.

It will be difficult to maintain order at the Committee's meetings, still more difficult for each member to have a say at every assembly. Inevitably, the committee chair will be forced to form subcommittees whose heads will report at each meeting. In order to give every representative an organized hand in the planning process, the U.C. will have to indulge in the micromanagement that President Carey W. Gabay '94 denigrated in the debate at The Crimson last Friday night.

Gabay, perhaps unconsciously, seemed reluctant to acknowledge another change instituted by the Re-evaluation Committee. While the U.C. opted to shed the appelations "Chair" and "Vice-Chair" in favor of "President" and "Vice President" for its officers, Gabay still referred to himself as a prospective Chair at the Friday debate. Either he simply didn't remember the new name, or he just wasn't taken in by delusions of grandeur that caused the change. Nothing about the job has changed, and no clear reason was given for the change last semester. At least they didn't rename Gabay's former office "Secretary of the Treasury."

As part of his campaign rhetoric, Gabay claimed that he had gotten to know the majority of the Council's members during his work on various committees. In point of fact, the U.C. has over 50 new members. They did elect Gabay their president, but he will have to use all of his charisma and enthusiasm to make them work together effectively.

Melissa Garza '94, now the Council Vice-President, said her campaign would be characterized by a "spirit of openness," a phrase lifted from a spring-semester U.C. newspaper advertisement. Under Gabay's reign, openness would be a welcome change from the last two Council chairs. During his term, Malcolm A. Heinicke '93 seemed shielded by the curtain of an old-boys network--a network from whose auspices the last candidate, Marc D. McKay '94, did nothing to remove himself. Even worse, former chair Michael P. Beys '94 had a practice of turning off reporters' cassette recorders when discussions became heated.

Council reform was one of the avowed purposes of the Re-evaluation Committee. The difference between change and reform will not become clear until we see how the membership reacts to its new environment. Most likely, political people will continue to beleaguer and begrudge. You can change the surroundings, but you can't change--or reform--human nature that easily.