Council Declines to Hear Affirmative Action Bill

The Undergraduate Council voted to fund the Levenson Awards banquet which recognizes excellence in teaching last night.

Students, faculty and administrators will attend the ceremonies which take place in Dunster House's dining hall later this semester. Students nominate their favorite instructors for the award.

The council allocated $2,600 for the festivities.

The council also voted not to consider a bill expressing its support for affirmative action drawn up by council member Kamil E. Redmond '00.

The council needed to vote on considering the legislation because it had not been docketed by the council's executive board. Redmond proposed the legislation as new business, normally reserved for emergency situations.

The council must vote by two-thirds to consider new business.

The bill called for the council to "express its continued commitment to diversity in the undergraduate body and concur with the Harvard administration in supporting affirmative action as a means of furthering diversity."

Redmond cited the visit of Ward Connerly, chair of the California Civil Rights Initiative, today to the ARCO Forum at the Institute of Politics as a reason for the bill's timeliness.

Without debate the council declined to consider the legislation, 29-29.

"The issue deserves more consideration than it would get in new business, and it was certainly not time critical," said Noah Z. Seton '00, saying Connerly is not the first and will not be the last speaker on affirmative action.

Some council members attributed the failure to consider the bill to growing conservatism on the council.

"[Affirmative action] is probably something a lot of members are opposed to," said Alexis B. Karteron '01. "There's also the ongoing debate about what the council is. A lot of people feel that it's not the role of the council [to debate political issues]."

"I don't think that this vote was about affirmative action," said Eric M. Nelson '99, a Crimson editor. A lot of members in favor of affirmative action voted against this. Our standards for debating new business are extremely difficult to meet."

Several council members are collaborating on a resolution to support eventually bringing affirmative action before the Student Affairs Committee, according to Justin D. Lerer '99, who is also a Crimson editor. After lengthy consideration, the council's standing committees vote to pass legislation on to the full council. The executive board votes whether or not to docket this legislation.

In other business, several council members reported on attending the Ivy Council, a colloquium of Ivy League student governments, at Cornell University last weekend. They returned with a book of information from the other schools about 12 issues common to each campus. The Ivy Council elected Karteron as one of its vice-presidents for the coming year.