No U.C. `War Room' Existed

To the editors:

I am writing in response to the wholly unjustified and factually incorrect column written by Noah D. Oppenheim criticizing the Undergraduate Council (Opinion, Nov. 20).

Oppenheim starts off by calling the council the "most maligned student organization on campus." He goes on to attribute the "council's current predicament" to Rob Hyman and Lamelle Rawlins, two former council presidents, whose "public style" he calls "arrogant and alienating." In fact, Hyman was elected once by the council itself, then by the whole study body. Rawlins was elected twice by the student body. It seems to me that it was obviously their "arrogant and alienating" style which led to these election victories.

Second, Oppenheim suggests that "Rawlins' inflated sense of self-importance was evident in the countless news items and word-of-mouth reports regarding the sophisticated War Room she employed..." As Lamelle's running mate, I can tell you that no "war room" existed. What we did have was neither sophisticated nor nefarious. It was a group of people who got together in Claverly Common Room once in a while to distribute posters and talk about how the campaign was going. David Wilhelm, the "professional Democratic party strategist" of which Oppenheim speaks, was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the time and a personal friend. I invited him to one of our gatherings so he could get a taste of campus life. He was neither solicited for, nor did he give, any advice to Lamelle or me on how to conduct our campaign.

Frankly, I am disappointed that in an effort to discredit the U.C., Oppenheim has resorted to spurious name calling. Nov. 20, 1998