Undergraduate Council Reform Stagnates at Year's End

"Reform" was the catch-word on every Undergraduate Council member's lips, but attempts to overhaul the often-maligned council this year met with only partial success.

Although the council made history with the election of its first woman president, Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, it was plagued throughout the year by fierce battles over the budget, campus-wide elections, anti-discrimination bills and, finally, the long-awaited structural reform.

"The council is incapable of fixing itself," said council member Marco B. Simons '97. "It is an inherently conservative body."

However, the council altered its own constitution to increase anti-discrimination protections and tackled problems such as Memorial Church's policy banning same-sex blessing ceremonies and the University's lack of recognition of gender identity in its nondiscrimination policy.

Making History

The council made national news when, after only its second round of campus-wide elections, it saw its first female president in its 15-year history.

Rawlins rose rapidly through the council's executive ranks over the last two years, serving as both secretary and vice president before taking over its highest post.

Rawlins, who is known for her strong feminist stance, said she hoped her high profile position would encourage other women on campus.

"For women who will be in the class of 2001 and women who are already here on campus, it can only help to see a woman as the student body president," Rawlins said during her campaign.

Yet Rawlins's victory did not come without a difficult battle. She narrowly beat out a field of 11 other candidates. Her running mate, Michael A. O'Mary '99, lost to rival Mark A. Price '98.

Highly organized campaign machines increasingly dominated the elections: Many more candidates ran together on tickets and were assisted by coordinated campaign managers and publicists. The election commission was deluged by reports of campaign rules violations.

Elected as vice president along with running mate Robert M. Hyman '98 in the first campus-wide elections last April, Rawlins also had to face a challenging first semester in council leadership.

Despite high hopes that a popularly elected leadership would smooth out ideological differences between council factions, many members criticized Hyman and Rawlins's administration for exacerbating differences through strong-arm administrative tactics.

Vice-presidential candidate Joseph A. Sena '99, who is a Crimson executive, characterized the first half of the year as bitterly divisive.

"A lot of the hostility was between the people running the council and the people on the council, especially around election time," Sena said in a year-end interview.

Budget Fight

Embroiled in the election chaos was the debate over the council's annual $120,000 budget, which divided many of the candidates and the council.

Relations between two of the council's committees, the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) and the Campus Life Committee (CLC), became increasingly strained.

Many people on Campus Life feared that larger allocations to the student group grants fund would cripple the ability of the CLC to plan a variety of events.

"Are we going to be a committee that only manages Yalegate, Springfest and the Levensons? Is that going to be our only responsibility?" said spring CLC co-chair Catherine D. Rucker '99, referring to popular student events and a prize for undergraduate teaching.

Hyman represented the opposing side.

"By and large, these events are just traditional money losers. [The budget] is a move in the right direction," in its proposal to grant more money to student groups, he said.

Election season widened the council split, due to a proposed budget referendum to increase the student group share of the budget sponsored by candidates Rawlins and O'Mary.

Had the referendum passed and been incorporated into the council constitution, the minimum budget allocation would have climbed from 60 percent to 65 percent of the council's total budget. Block grants to houses would also have been guaranteed in the constitution.

After the council voted to hold the referendum just days after the presidential and vice presidential elections in an attempt to depoliticize the referendum, it failed to get the necessary 25 percent student turnout.

"It is a shame that the referendum was toyed with and delayed," Rawlins said. "I am confident that if we'd had all of the elections at the same time, the U.C. constitution would now stand amended."

Many council members felt the budget debate dominated the council's agenda.

"This year can be summed up by dollars, unfortunately," said CLC co-chair Sena.

However, Sena also praised Rawlins's administration for uniting the council after the fall's bitter debates.

"The council has come a long way from the budget debates in the fall," Sena said. "You have to credit Lamelle for making sure everyone stayed involved."

Fighting Discrimination

The council also turned its reforming eye on discrimination policy within the University.

In January, the council voted to recommend that Memorial Church's administrative board allow same-sex blessing ceremonies to be held in the church.

"I think it goes against Harvard's non-discrimination policy, which I hold very dear. What they're saying is that straight people can use Memorial Church, gay people cannot," said Sarah K. Hurwitz '99.

Later that semester, the council voted to include gender identity in its non-discrimination clause.

The term gender identity includes the transgendered, transsexuals, cross-dressers and hermaphrodites.

The council also urged Harvard to include gender identity in the University's own non-discrimination clause, although no change has yet been made.

"What we are saying is that transgendered people will be let into Harvard [and] will be let into the Undergraduate Council," said Daniel S. Quint '97. "I think that's something the entire student body would stand for."

Rawlins also lauded the council's work in this area.

"This is a proactive type of legislation," she said. "We are holding up transgenderism as something that need not be discriminated against."

Structual Reform

In the spring, the council created an extra-council committee of students to give the council major structural overhaul. However, the committee's high hopes for dramatic change fell flat when most of the extensive reforms failed to pass by the end of the year.

Many students said they felt the council was out of touch with the majority of the student body.

"A major problem with the U.C. and the student body is a lack of communication," said Susan M. Groppi '98, vice-chair of the reform committee. "The U.C. doesn't know what the student body wants from it and the student body doesn't know what the U.C. is doing."

Members of the council said they felt the organization had to reach outside its membership because it did not have the structural capacity to reform itself.

Many alterations were intended to reflect the change in the role of leadership resulting from a popular election. They included the creation of a council moderator and the division of the current single-body council into three separate branches.

Reform committee members said they were disappointed when the council, fighting weak attendance and strong opposition to the proposals, did not pass the bills by the last meeting last semester. Members were afraid the proposals would not carry over into the fall.

"Bills that will delay this to next year will kill [the reforms]," Groppi said. "Everything [the committee has] worked for will die."

Other council members said they were fruststrated with the council's lack of activity while it considered reform.

"There's a lot that can be done within our structure now," Sena said. "Everything can't be stopped just to reform the U.C."

"There was a heavy emphasis on reform and a lack of actual activity," he said. "It brought everybody to a really apathetic state."

Rawlins agreed that structural reform was not the top priority, saying, "Structure isn't everything. A good structure can do a lot, but it's the people that really make it work."

Overall, Rawlins said she was pleased with the work accomplished during the year. Shuttle bus reform, the council's work on Core reform, a 24-hour library and reform of Loker Commons were all achievements the council helped effect, she said.

However, Rawlins said one of the chief problems with the council this year was that many of its activities went unnoticed by the student body.

"There's this idea that the U.C. needs to go to the students and it's not a matter of students seeking out the U.C," Rawlins said.

Publicity of council activities and communication between students and council members will be her top priority next year, she said.

She said she hoped that representatives' new required office hours, to be held every Sunday in the dining halls, would alleviate the problem through what she called an "in your face resource."