Campus Civic Virtues

"The Undergraduate Council is a farce. It is an irrelevant debate society superimposed on a glorified dance committee." --Joseph G. Cleemann '98 in his position paper for president of the Undergraduate Council.

I wrote something eerily similar to this quotation during my first year at Harvard in a dissent to a staff editorial. "Why pretend that the U.C. is or can be representative of student opinion, or that it can or will act on our behalf?" I questioned. "No one cares about it, and its members perennially return the feeling. The council is an impotent farce. Obviously, true student government does not exist at Harvard. We are ruled by the College administration. It is time to end the charade. Abolish the U.C."

My ire had been inspired by a student government that was thoroughly unrepresentative--the Old Boys Network dominating the council hierarchy through back-room deals, financially corrupt, given to looting from the common treasury for private purposes, and ineffective both in attempting to represent student opinion in front of the administration and in the organization of undergraduate events and services. The council merited neither the nominal dues that I contributed nor the attention lavished upon it by the campus press.

What was true then, however, is not true now. First, the council, while far from perfect, now belongs to the students more than ever because of popular elections. Second, the presidency of Robert M. Hyman '98 and his accountability to the general student body through these elections has eliminated the graft of previous administrations. Third, electoral competition has helped to spur a competition among councillors for the most impressive records--this is a mechanism that allows the efforts of otherwise slimy politicos to be appropriated for the student interest.

In retrospect, my pessimism was entirely unwarranted. The status quo is never the final equilibrium. Despite the depths to which the student government had sunk during the 1994-95 season, its structure was thereafter able to be molded by the determined efforts of councillors and members of the campus press to be more responsive to student issues. The first campus elections last spring were mostly a raucous medley of fluorescent posters with minimal substantive content. But they had the effect of galvanizing politicos into real-world type politicking, attempting to gain the support of various College constituencies, to influence the press and to disseminate a coherent and popular message.

In this year's elections, which are thankfully being conducted over an abbreviated period, the process has been somewhat refined with the candidates somewhat refined with the candidates running on platforms and with running mates. In fact, there is a major issue at hand that has true political ramifications: the percentage of funding for student groups is a negotiable figure of a universal $120,000 budget. The presidential candidate who is pushing for increased grants, the liberal front-runner Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, has received the endorsement of a great many student-group leaders--themselves largely representative of liberal constituencies--who understand that because of her ideological alignment, she represents their financial interests. The other candidates oppose giving away more of the council's funds and appeal to the interests of the more conservative majority with the promise of a great concert.

Students are generally disdainful of the council elections. Like Cleemann, they feel that the council is itself over-hyped and unnecessary. This is a shame because it is apathy exemplified. It seems that undergrads who can be so concerned about the world outside of Harvard forsake their civic obligations here as if they were second rate. While the cynics are correct that the council has limited funding ($120,000 is not all that much money for a student government) and often reduces itself to petty infighting, they ignore the democratic process which is in and of itself a beneficial lesson and source of communal attachment. The political dialogue among students and their representatives on issues of common import do much to enhance our notion of community.

Joshua A. Kaufman's column appears on alternate Tuesdays.