Questions of Dead Weight Divide Council Observers

When Undergraduate Council member David V. Bonfili '96 saw a fellow member leaving before the main act of the Machinery Hall concert last week, he tried to get his colleague to stay by appealing to council loyalty.

"You're on the U.C. and this is a U.C. event,' I told him," Bonfili says. "'Don't you feel some sort of institutional commitment to stay at the concert and support the the council?'

The delegate said he had come to see one of his friends play in the band, Bonfili says.

"'No,' the council member said, according to Bonfili. "'I'm a senior. I don't feel any commitment to the U.C. I came to hear a friend play. Now I'm leaving.'"

The next day, at the council's weekly meeting, Bonfili criticized council members for not making the Machinery Hall concert "as much a success as it could have been."

"Those of you who don't have a serious commitment to the U.C. should make room for people who do," Bonfili said he told the council.

Bonfili expressed what many other active members say they are thinking these days--that a significant amount of the council's work is done by a minority of the body. Concerts, free shuttle buses and trips are the efforts of a few, committed representatives with little help from the majority of other council members.

"[Dead weight['s a problem because there are a lot of people who don't do anything," says Hassen A. Sayeed '96, chair of the student affairs committee.

Although some members say that a representative's contributions can't be measured by number of resolutions or speeches on the floor, others are proposing measures such as moving the election time and reorganizing the committee system in order to drop the coun- cil's "dead weight" members.

Measuring the Problem

Council President Carey W. Gabay '94 alsodiagnoses the council with a deadweight problemand says that there are "some people who don'tparticipate in it."

The council is "operating at something like 60percent of its full capacity," Gabay says.

Rudd W. Coffey '97, vice chair of the council'scampus life committee, estimates that in hiscommittee, "about 25 percent of the people do 90percent of the work."

"Probably about 20 percent don't do all toomuch," Coffey adds.

There were approximately 80 sponsors for the 40resolutions that have made it to the docket thisyear, according to figures provided by PressSecretary Jonathan P. Feeney '97.

Most resolutions are sponsored by two councilmembers, but only 26 individuals were among these80 co-sponsorships.

But according to Vice-President Joshua D.Liston '95, a representative's activity can't bemeasured by the number of resolutions he proposes.

"A lot of committee chairs will proposeresolutions on behalf of their committee, andthat's just tradition," says Liston, who explainedthat most of the work done for a resolutions isdone in committees.

"With the finance committee," Liston adds,"there's 17 people who won't see their efforts inresolutions until Grants Night."

But many members say this problem, as well asother symptoms such as inconsistent attendance,point to many council members who aren't doingtheir job.

On paper, the council's attendence policy istough on slackers. The council's constitutionmandates that any member who misses a total offive general or committee meetings must beautomatically expelled by the vice president.

Expelled members are given a second chance onlyif two-thirds of the executive committee approvereinstatement.

And since the committees and the council as awhole each met once per week over the nine-weekautumn session, council members could have missedup to 25 percent of the meetings they are requiredto attend. Those who are reinstated start theirnew terms with three absences.

Attendance at committee meetings, however,wasn't recorded precisely last semester, accordingto several council members.

Coffey, who is responsible as vice chair thissemester for recording his committee's attendance,says record-keeping was "not overly strict lastsemester."

Even so, seven council members who wereexpelled for attendance reasons applied forreinstatement, according to former council VicePresident Melissa Garza '94.

Every request was granted.

"I don't think it's effective," says Anjalee C.Davis '95, a former council member who resignedlast night. "Anyone with fairly reasonable--andnot so reasonable--explanations will bereinstated."

Garza, however, praises the attendance policyand even cited it as one of the term's biggestsuccesses in her final speech to the council asvice president on February 6.

"Allowances have to be made," Garza says. "Ifsomeone's in UHS for a week, that's two meetingsright there. A lot of times, there are veryexplicit reasons. And by and large, U.C. membersput in a lot more time than other extracurricularclub members."

Liston also says he feels the reinstatementpolicy is fair and effective.

"I can't think of one instance where [thosereinstated] didn't do a lot of work in theircommittee," Liston says.

It is the flexibility of the attendance policy,however, that is one reason why the council isstruck with absenteeism, some members say.

The policy allows each member to have his orher attendance record wiped clean with thebeginning of each new semester.

Thus, a council member who was absent from sixmeetings last semester, can miss another fivebefore being expelled again, although even thatexpulsion may not be permanent.

Gabay himself describes the first expulsion asmore "like as stern warning."

But the reinstatement policy doesn't givepeople incentive to take attendance seriously,according to Sayeed.

"If we started taking really strict attendance,and if we stuck to it, people would show up to themeetings, on time," Sayeed says.

And several council members agree that theattendance policy doesn't effectively compel themto schedule other commitments around the meetings.

Taking Action

To rid the council of its deadweight problem,the council's re-evaluation committee, whosemembership is split evenly between council membersand non-council members, is hammering out severalproposals.

One that will soon be discussed by thecommittee is to reduce each house's councildelegation by one member.

"We'd be smaller and probably faster and getmore done," says Sayeed, a member of there-evaluation committee.

Garza, another member of the committee, saysthat reducing each house's delegation will makeeach representative feel like a more integral partof the council.

"If you look at the reason why people leave,[one of them is that] they want to commit moretime to other activities," Garza says.

"And usually in other organizations, peoplefeel they can make a difference more easily andreadily. By decreasing membership, we can allowmembers to contribute more," Garza says.

The Constitution Committee, a group,unaffiliated with the council, that is workingindependently to propose alternativeconstitutional reforms, is proposing a moreradical measure to reduce the total membership onthe council.

Niko Canner '94, a former council member whoco-founded the committee, says his group is hopingto reduce the council to about 60 percent of itscurrent size by allowing only three delegates perdistrict.

"If you cut the number of representatives fromfive to three, you can still perform most of theessential tasks," Canner says. "And there wouldbe a smaller, more cohesive council."

"It's unfortunate that [members of all levelsof activity] have equal representative power,"Canner adds.

Most council members, however, strongly opposesuch a dramatic reduction.

Sayeed calls the measure "Iudicrous."

"With a solution of internally kicking peopleoff, then you suffer the potential of being apolicy committee, lacking manpower to get anythingdone," Sayeed adds.

"I'm strongly against it," says Justin C. Label'97, vice chair of the student affairs committee."The problem is that many of the hardest workingpeople I knew weren't in the top three of theirdistrict."

But Hillary K. Anger '93-94 disputes themanpower charge as a "fake argument, because thefact is that few people do the work now anyway."

"I think people are afraid to cut the size ofthe U.C. because they're afraid they won't getelected," adds Anger, who is the other co-founderof the Constitutional Committee.

Bonfili suggests that students who are notelected members could do work that does notnecessarily need to be done by therepresentatives.

For example, he suggests, students who wantedto organize concert for the campus could form aclub and get funding from the council.

Students then wouldn't be forced ontocommittees to do work they are not completelywilling to do, Bonfili says.

Removing one delegate from each house alsopresents problems, say council members.

In addition to the loss of able workers, theremoval of the delegate with the fewest votes--whomay not be the least hardworking--seems "arbitraryand unfair," Sayeed says.

In addition, Gabay says, downsizing wouldaffect sophomores most, since they're leastwell-known in the houses.

The result, he says, is that the council wouldbe composed largely of seniors, many of whom havewhat Gabay termed "senioritis."

Another proposal would shift the elections fromthe beginning of the year to the middle.

This would eliminate second-semester seniors,who many council members believe represent a largeportion of the dead weight.

It would also make council members moreaccountable to their constituents, Gabay says, byproviding an incentive to work hard in the fallwith elections imminent.

But the proposal has kinks as well. Gabay sayshe believes a high turnover in February would slowdown whatever momentum had been picked up by thecouncil in the fall.

But Bonfili disputes that interruption ofmomentum is a problem.

"When the executive board changes in the middleof the year, it's either because a given executivedidn't want to do the job or because the peoplefeel they made a mistake the first time around,"Bonfili says. "The same argument holds for thecouncil as a whole."

Some council members suggest more modest andinternal proposals to alleviate the problems ofdeadweight.

Gabay says one idea being examined by there-evaluation committee is to outline specificallythe duties of each council member.

"If they're responsible for A, B, C and D, thenthe council can reproach them [for not performingduties]," Gabay says.

Liston says that rather than reducing the sizeof the council, the council should giverepresentatives more to do.

He says several suggestions are in the works,including "reprioritizing the council's budget andmaybe charging for events we haven't in the past."

Label agrees that council members are willingto work, but aren't adequately assigned enough todo.

"In the past, we took volunteers for projects,"Label says. "A lot of the time, I don't thinkpeople don't want to work; people just don'tvolunteer."

"We want to see everyone on the committeeworking on a project," Label says. "That kind ofprocess could get rid of a lot of the deadweight."

"A Fact of Life"

Former council Chair Michael P. Beys '94 sayshe recognizes dead weight as a problem, butdoesn't think any measures, no matter how strict,can cure the council.

"There's a distinction between representing andworking," Beys says. "By showing up and raisingyour hand, you're doing an adequate jobrepresenting. Working hard is above and beyond thecall of duty."

"I wish council members had a little more pridein their work," Beys adds, "but I don't think anyof this discussion can translate into action--thisis how it is, and it's a fact of life."Eugene Y. ChangHong H. Tran

Measuring the Problem

Council President Carey W. Gabay '94 alsodiagnoses the council with a deadweight problemand says that there are "some people who don'tparticipate in it."

The council is "operating at something like 60percent of its full capacity," Gabay says.

Rudd W. Coffey '97, vice chair of the council'scampus life committee, estimates that in hiscommittee, "about 25 percent of the people do 90percent of the work."

"Probably about 20 percent don't do all toomuch," Coffey adds.

There were approximately 80 sponsors for the 40resolutions that have made it to the docket thisyear, according to figures provided by PressSecretary Jonathan P. Feeney '97.

Most resolutions are sponsored by two councilmembers, but only 26 individuals were among these80 co-sponsorships.

But according to Vice-President Joshua D.Liston '95, a representative's activity can't bemeasured by the number of resolutions he proposes.

"A lot of committee chairs will proposeresolutions on behalf of their committee, andthat's just tradition," says Liston, who explainedthat most of the work done for a resolutions isdone in committees.

"With the finance committee," Liston adds,"there's 17 people who won't see their efforts inresolutions until Grants Night."

But many members say this problem, as well asother symptoms such as inconsistent attendance,point to many council members who aren't doingtheir job.

On paper, the council's attendence policy istough on slackers. The council's constitutionmandates that any member who misses a total offive general or committee meetings must beautomatically expelled by the vice president.

Expelled members are given a second chance onlyif two-thirds of the executive committee approvereinstatement.

And since the committees and the council as awhole each met once per week over the nine-weekautumn session, council members could have missedup to 25 percent of the meetings they are requiredto attend. Those who are reinstated start theirnew terms with three absences.

Attendance at committee meetings, however,wasn't recorded precisely last semester, accordingto several council members.

Coffey, who is responsible as vice chair thissemester for recording his committee's attendance,says record-keeping was "not overly strict lastsemester."

Even so, seven council members who wereexpelled for attendance reasons applied forreinstatement, according to former council VicePresident Melissa Garza '94.

Every request was granted.

"I don't think it's effective," says Anjalee C.Davis '95, a former council member who resignedlast night. "Anyone with fairly reasonable--andnot so reasonable--explanations will bereinstated."

Garza, however, praises the attendance policyand even cited it as one of the term's biggestsuccesses in her final speech to the council asvice president on February 6.

"Allowances have to be made," Garza says. "Ifsomeone's in UHS for a week, that's two meetingsright there. A lot of times, there are veryexplicit reasons. And by and large, U.C. membersput in a lot more time than other extracurricularclub members."

Liston also says he feels the reinstatementpolicy is fair and effective.

"I can't think of one instance where [thosereinstated] didn't do a lot of work in theircommittee," Liston says.

It is the flexibility of the attendance policy,however, that is one reason why the council isstruck with absenteeism, some members say.

The policy allows each member to have his orher attendance record wiped clean with thebeginning of each new semester.

Thus, a council member who was absent from sixmeetings last semester, can miss another fivebefore being expelled again, although even thatexpulsion may not be permanent.

Gabay himself describes the first expulsion asmore "like as stern warning."

But the reinstatement policy doesn't givepeople incentive to take attendance seriously,according to Sayeed.

"If we started taking really strict attendance,and if we stuck to it, people would show up to themeetings, on time," Sayeed says.

And several council members agree that theattendance policy doesn't effectively compel themto schedule other commitments around the meetings.

Taking Action

To rid the council of its deadweight problem,the council's re-evaluation committee, whosemembership is split evenly between council membersand non-council members, is hammering out severalproposals.

One that will soon be discussed by thecommittee is to reduce each house's councildelegation by one member.

"We'd be smaller and probably faster and getmore done," says Sayeed, a member of there-evaluation committee.

Garza, another member of the committee, saysthat reducing each house's delegation will makeeach representative feel like a more integral partof the council.

"If you look at the reason why people leave,[one of them is that] they want to commit moretime to other activities," Garza says.

"And usually in other organizations, peoplefeel they can make a difference more easily andreadily. By decreasing membership, we can allowmembers to contribute more," Garza says.

The Constitution Committee, a group,unaffiliated with the council, that is workingindependently to propose alternativeconstitutional reforms, is proposing a moreradical measure to reduce the total membership onthe council.

Niko Canner '94, a former council member whoco-founded the committee, says his group is hopingto reduce the council to about 60 percent of itscurrent size by allowing only three delegates perdistrict.

"If you cut the number of representatives fromfive to three, you can still perform most of theessential tasks," Canner says. "And there wouldbe a smaller, more cohesive council."

"It's unfortunate that [members of all levelsof activity] have equal representative power,"Canner adds.

Most council members, however, strongly opposesuch a dramatic reduction.

Sayeed calls the measure "Iudicrous."

"With a solution of internally kicking peopleoff, then you suffer the potential of being apolicy committee, lacking manpower to get anythingdone," Sayeed adds.

"I'm strongly against it," says Justin C. Label'97, vice chair of the student affairs committee."The problem is that many of the hardest workingpeople I knew weren't in the top three of theirdistrict."

But Hillary K. Anger '93-94 disputes themanpower charge as a "fake argument, because thefact is that few people do the work now anyway."

"I think people are afraid to cut the size ofthe U.C. because they're afraid they won't getelected," adds Anger, who is the other co-founderof the Constitutional Committee.

Bonfili suggests that students who are notelected members could do work that does notnecessarily need to be done by therepresentatives.

For example, he suggests, students who wantedto organize concert for the campus could form aclub and get funding from the council.

Students then wouldn't be forced ontocommittees to do work they are not completelywilling to do, Bonfili says.

Removing one delegate from each house alsopresents problems, say council members.

In addition to the loss of able workers, theremoval of the delegate with the fewest votes--whomay not be the least hardworking--seems "arbitraryand unfair," Sayeed says.

In addition, Gabay says, downsizing wouldaffect sophomores most, since they're leastwell-known in the houses.

The result, he says, is that the council wouldbe composed largely of seniors, many of whom havewhat Gabay termed "senioritis."

Another proposal would shift the elections fromthe beginning of the year to the middle.

This would eliminate second-semester seniors,who many council members believe represent a largeportion of the dead weight.

It would also make council members moreaccountable to their constituents, Gabay says, byproviding an incentive to work hard in the fallwith elections imminent.

But the proposal has kinks as well. Gabay sayshe believes a high turnover in February would slowdown whatever momentum had been picked up by thecouncil in the fall.

But Bonfili disputes that interruption ofmomentum is a problem.

"When the executive board changes in the middleof the year, it's either because a given executivedidn't want to do the job or because the peoplefeel they made a mistake the first time around,"Bonfili says. "The same argument holds for thecouncil as a whole."

Some council members suggest more modest andinternal proposals to alleviate the problems ofdeadweight.

Gabay says one idea being examined by there-evaluation committee is to outline specificallythe duties of each council member.

"If they're responsible for A, B, C and D, thenthe council can reproach them [for not performingduties]," Gabay says.

Liston says that rather than reducing the sizeof the council, the council should giverepresentatives more to do.

He says several suggestions are in the works,including "reprioritizing the council's budget andmaybe charging for events we haven't in the past."

Label agrees that council members are willingto work, but aren't adequately assigned enough todo.

"In the past, we took volunteers for projects,"Label says. "A lot of the time, I don't thinkpeople don't want to work; people just don'tvolunteer."

"We want to see everyone on the committeeworking on a project," Label says. "That kind ofprocess could get rid of a lot of the deadweight."

"A Fact of Life"

Former council Chair Michael P. Beys '94 sayshe recognizes dead weight as a problem, butdoesn't think any measures, no matter how strict,can cure the council.

"There's a distinction between representing andworking," Beys says. "By showing up and raisingyour hand, you're doing an adequate jobrepresenting. Working hard is above and beyond thecall of duty."

"I wish council members had a little more pridein their work," Beys adds, "but I don't think anyof this discussion can translate into action--thisis how it is, and it's a fact of life."Eugene Y. ChangHong H. Tran