More Autonomy Needed

The Undergraduate Council's new alliance with Dean Lewis is a farcical attempt to revive student government. The second option open to the dean after a council decision is a veto. Because the dean will always get what the dean wants, this bylaws amendment is nothing more than a regurgitation of the current situation, except that now the dean will be able to co-opt student support for his proposals when it is convenient for him to do so.

In order to establish true student government at Harvard, the Undergraduate Council must be dissolved. The council, having been conceived by a vote of the faculty, can never function in a mature capacity. It must be reestablished by the students, of the students and for the students. As the situation stands, the council can no longer speak for the students on this campus in an independent manner on issues of changes in the governing structure of the University.