Give the Council Some Substance

A new day is dawning on this campus. The new student administration promises a kinder, gentler Undergraduate Council, one more directly relevant to students and one which is able restore our faith in those who would spend the $20 some of us put into their pockets every year.

Josh Liston might be King of the Hill now, but as we begin a new era at the council., it would be both instructive and humbling to examine the real state of Harvard's student government and the challenges which perpetually face it. In brief, the council suffers from two fundamental handicaps: a lack of institutionalized power and a lack of good people.

The Undergraduate Council has, through no fault of its own, a pitifully weak mandate. The College has not granted the council enough power to make it more than the bickering, glorified dance committee that it presently is. Its ex officio memberships in College committees are strictly advisory, yet the ridiculous scandals and vicious counter-accu-sations that dominate council politics undermine any credibility any-way. The ineffectual, non-binding resolutions that the council passes on any issue of consequence--like ROTC, the structure of the College, or the search for the new dean--come across as bloated, bombastic and ineffectual squeals. Moreover, the council's process of arriving at these resolutions--chock full of ridiculous scandals and vituperative counter-accusations--serve only to lessen the credibility and gravity of its formal statements.

Because of its trivial role in real matters, the council is left to issues which can only be described as insignificantly autoerotic, at least from the viewpoint of the common undergraduate: constitutional reform (but who cares?), member expulsions and the provision of circuses. These are the issues that sustain the council and give it life, like pumping stale sugar water into a half-dead body to keep it alive.

The dearth of unambiguously competent people in on the council was made painfully obvious in the council's recent presidential debates. The candidates, having dispensed with an opening volley of bizarre accusations about constitutional reform vote stuffing, delved right into pandering to provide more circuses for the masses. Candidates jockeyed to promise the greatest thrills: Harvard-wide formals, a battle of the bands, a raft race and presidential favorite Randy Fine, in a vaguelyphrased "The 'Stones are Coming" tone, promised "a major musical act." It is clear that aside from our love of raft races and the Rolling Stones, the council has no directly relevant link to the undergraduate populace. In fact, earlier this year Liston lost to write-in candidate Pathik P. Patel '97 in his own House election and only regained his seat after Patel was kicked off the council for poor attendance. Perhaps that's why less than 20 percent of all undergraduates bother to vote in council elections. They're simply not worth it.

One can't help but get the sense that council members are spawned in a culture of backstabbing and almost surreal stupidity. President Liston, in an attempt to qualify himself during campaign, boasted that the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) Guide's average difficulty level of his spring term courses would be 2.1. It seems odd that "I'm not doing any work in class" has become a selling point for public office. Further, the efforts to establish a more direct link to students--like Liston's murder of a small forest and salesman-like visitations to every undergraduate room on campus to deliver a position paper--sound more like harassment than real progress.

We implore President Liston to add these two points to his agenda in the coming year: First, clean up your act. Make your presidency answerable to your predecessor's "No Scandal Guarantee." Gain some legitimacy in the eyes of your constituents so that maybe you can do more than throw dances and squeak at meetings of the Committee on House Life.

Second, when or if you've finally gained some respect for the council, negotiate with the College for small chunks of greater authority and real power. Take our student government on the road to fulfilling the true meaning of its name. Give it some real responsibility and an audible, authoritative voice in College affairs.

This is where a revolution might happen. Power flows into an organization; it breathes new life into the structure and enlarges the group of people who care for what goes on in it. The institution by necessity becomes more responsible to its constituency, perhaps one day turning into a real student government.