BEER, MONSTER TRUCKS, AND THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL COUNCIL

Say goodbye to political bickering as we know it. Put aside those law books and clear out of Langdell's stuffy stacks. Harvard Law School students are getting ready to rumble.

Highlighted by a potential monster truck extravaganza and a free flow of beer, the Monster Truck Coalition--a five-member group of Harvard Law School Council representatives--is trying to add levity to law school life.

"We are trying to inject humor into a group of students who were taking themselves too seriously," says Monster Trucker Josh Frieman, a second-year law student.

"The council is out of touch with what students want and need. It's too busy trying to save the world," says second-year Christopher L. "Kit" Ekman '92, another of the pioneers.

Last spring's election for council president, won by Enu A. Mainigi, "turned a lot of people off" of council politics, says third-year Henry D. "Hank" Fincher, a third-year student who has been on the council since his first year.

Second-year student and Trucker leader William E. "Buzzsaw" Growney Jr. originated the idea for the coalition last year when he was fed up with the council's politics.

The coalition was "a whimsical reaction to an egotistical council," says Fincher, who is not a Trucker but has been termed by Growney as the "grand-daddy of the Monster Truck Coalition."

"They ran a great parody of the election process," Fincher says. "We all got very serious about [the election], and they made fun of it...Nothing keeps you on your toes like satire."

Last year, Growney lived on the same floor as two of the other Truckers, Shea T. "Shovelhead" Moxon and Kit "Captain Crunch" Ekman. They joined to form the Coalition with "Big Daddy" Frieman, who had been an undergraduate along with Growney at the University of California at Berkeley.

The idea for the coalition actually began at a fraternity at Berkeley as a joke party for the Associated Students of the University of California, the school's student government.

Frieman worked in student government at Berkeley but was not a member of the schools' Monster Truck Coalition. Growney was not involved in politics while at Berkeley.

"They had a much funnier platform at Cal," Frieman said. "They wanted to turn the library into a casino."

The Law School's version of Truckers ran for seats on the council on a two-plank platform of holding a monster truck rally and serving beer at all law school events.

"Students want beer and monster trucks on campus," says Shovelhead Moxon, a second-year law student. "Since the election, we've been asked almost daily when the monster trucks are arriving."

In the election, the four Truckers were all victorious. A fifth Trucker was voted onto the council this week during first-year elections.

Bud Bowl

The coalition began earlier this semester to try to implement its plank of providing beer at the council's bimonthly meetings--which all students can attend.

The first time the beer issue made the council's agenda last month, the measure failed. But Growney's resolution was resurrected last week--and members voted 10-8 in favor of the measure.

The vote allows for 25 dollars to purchase beer for each meeting--to be supplemented by voluntary contributions.

Ekman said he thought that the council's outlay would be no more than 10 dollars per meeting after contributions.

"I'd personally be for Bud tall boys," Growney said.

"Fourscore and seven beers ago, we embarked on a crusade to bring some sanity to the Law School Council. Today, sanity has triumphed," Growney said on the night his resolution was victorious.

"I personally invite the entire Law School to come to the next meeting and drink the beers we appropriated for them," he said.

Growney says the Truckers introduced the measure to prove to the student body that council members are in fact normal people. He also says he thinks the beer could attract students to the council's meetings.

Opponents question the measure on the grounds that the council should not spend its money on refreshments for itself since they did not think it would increase attendance at the meetings.

"My opposition is using student money for a perk which is entirely unnecessary," says second-year law student Erik A. Lindseth, who is the Council's parliamentarian. "There's a certain financial stake in it."

"You just don't hear of deliberative assemblies with beer at their sessions," Lindseth says. "If there's just a bunch of Long Necks being tipped up the whole meeting, then the debate suffers."

In a letter published in yesterday's Harvard Law Record, five council members who voted against the beer resolution restated their frustration.

"We are most concerned with this legislation because it is a waste of the student body's money, and damages the legitimacy of an organization which has recently done many things which benefit the entire law school community," the letter said.

Mainigi, the council president, and council Vice President Chantal Thomas, a second-year, also wrote a letter to the Law Record that questioned "the propriety of Council members buying themselves beer with Law School Council funds."

"I have no problem with beer at meetings as long as nobody is inebriated," Law School Council President Mainigi says. She says her only problem was the use of council funds.

Second-year law student and council representative Spencer G. Levy was even more vocal with his opposition, especially at the meeting.

"It was a black and white issue," Levy says. "The resolution to allow beer was unconscionable. I got angry and I'm glad."

"I don't even think they should be able to bring their own beer in," he says.

The Truckers say the debate showed the true reason behind the creation of the coalition.

"If there was no other justification, the debate was [enough]," Growney says.

"It is so typical of the Law School," Fincher says. "The beer resolution was as divisive as the diversity issue."

"As the debate went on, people started playing lawyer. It started off as a joke and then became a fight," Fincher continues.

Immediately after the September 27 meeting, a motion to rescind the measure was placed on the agenda for the next meeting--when the newly elected first-year and graduate representatives will be on the council.

In the election for first-year representatives, the Truckers picked up another seat on the Council as Joseph "Grizzly" Ditkoff was victorious.

Growney says he will filibuster any motion to rescind.

"I'm going to filibuster," Growney says. "I'm going to read the entire Cambridge phone book."

Clear the Roads

All beer aside, the coalition has bigger wheels to spin. They want their trucks, and they want to see them soon.

"I watch TNN (The Nashville Network) every time I go home. [The law school] has deprived us of our monster trucks," says "Shovelhead" Moxon, adding that he could not afford cable even if it was offered in his law school dormitory.

Despite this hardship, the Truckers have not been quite as active in acting on the other plank of their platform. Moxon says there are no concrete plans for monster trucks in the immediate future.

But as a follow up to the council's successful book exchange which netted $2,000, the Truckers want to hire a monster truck to run over the left-over books.

"I'm going to campaign vigorously for having a monster truck come to run over the remaining books," Moxon says.

This, however, would not satisfy the ultimate goal of a full monster truck rally. So far the group has been divided as to where to stage the attempt.

"Growney is in favor of Mass. Ave., but I'd like to see the Stadium put to use," Moxon says.

It appears unlikely that Mass. Ave. would be an available option for the Truckers. The City of Cambridge said it would not give them approval.

"Basically, I'm not about to close Mass. Ave. It's the major spine through the city," says Lauren M. Preston, Cambridge's deputy traffic director.

The person in charge of Soldiers Field operations for non-sporting events did not return a phone call.

Growney, however, says he would fight back.

"Once I start threatening to run for Cambridge City Council as a Monster Trucker, they'll change," Growney says.

Ekman also remained positive despite the bad news.

"We still have Holmes Field and the field outside the [Harkness Commons]," he says.

Ekman said he worked at a law firm in Alabama over the summer that represented some race car drivers. He said he might be able to find the monster trucks using this connection.

"I plan on trying to pull some strings on that end," Ekman says.