Social Clubbers Preach Girl Power

For the first time ever, two women—Sujean S. Lee ’03 and Anne M. Fernandez ’03—are running on the same ticket for president and vice president of the Undergraduate Council.

While this may be a new thing for the council, the council is anything but new to Lee and Fernandez.

Lee, who is the current vice president of the group, has been a member of the council since her freshman year, served as social chair of the Campus Life Committee (CLC) and co-founded and co-directs the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC).

Fernandez says she “dove” into her council career as a sophomore and has not looked back since. She served as the council events coordinator and was co-chair of the Finance Committee last year and is currently the treasurer.

Lee’s website, www.fas.harvard.edu/ ~sslee, reflects campaign savvy she gained from her campaign with Paul A. Gusmorino ’02 last year. Floating orange and black graphics outline her ticket’s platform, while jazz music plays in the background.

The Lee-Fernandez duo is not shy about the long-standing council commitment either.

Their experience-boasting slogan, “Build a better Harvard with proven leaders. The best is yet to come” adorns the top of orange posters, which are plastered on boards across campus.

“In the past year, the UC has become a very effective organization,” Lee says. “Annie and I just want to take it one step further.”

The Right Stuff?

While nobody denies that Lee and Fernandez have a lot of council experience under their belts, some members doubt that it is the right experience.

The past two council presidents, Gusmorino and Noah Z. Seton ’00 were both chairs of the council’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC). SAC officers deal with University administrators far more than CLC officers, like Lee. Even Lee admits herself that these types of interactions with administrators are crucial to a productive council presidency.

“[Lee and Fernandez] both have a good deal of experience but their experience is doing things like the Concert Commission, the freshman formal, things that are more social,” says former council Treasurer Justin A. Barkley ’02.

“Neither of them are experienced in the bread and butter of council work like lobbying for later party hours. That’s something Paul has excelled at and they haven’t experienced.”

Lee says she recognizes that students on CLC interact less with administrators, but that her tenure as vice president has provided her with an important link to the administration.

She says she has met deans and faculty by attending council-related meetings, helping Gusmorino with his projects and planning campus-wide events with Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71.

But Barkley says that Lee’s work with administrators in the realm of setting up concerts does not measure up to Gusmorino’s discussions with Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 about issues like universal keycard access.

Popular People

Despite this disadvantage, Barkley predicts that Lee’s popularity on campus will win her the election.

Both Lee and Fernandez have substantial name-recognition among undergraduates resulting from their work with council and their involvement in social organizations.

Lee is an officer of the Seneca club, an all-female social organization, while Fernandez is a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and recently co-founded a new female final club called the Isis.

Lee and Fernandez say that these women’s groups, part of a social scene they have navigated extremely successfully, have provided them with more than just a social outlet—and their platform reflects it.

Both candidates say that improving social opportunities at Harvard is important to them.

One of their campaign promises is to create a “livelier Harvard” by moving the HCCs concerts to a bigger arena, like the football stadium, and forming a first-year social committee as a counterpart to House Committees.

The candidates say that their involvement in women’s groups has also opened their eyes to women’s issues the council should address.

Lee says they will lobby for an impartial advocate for victims of sexual assault who take their cases before the Ad Board, and notes that they would like to pay particular attention to official and unofficial women’s groups, so that the council can address their concerns.

Working Hard

The ticket’s participation in women’s groups and other extracurricular activities, like the prefect program and the Cuban American Undergraduate Student Association (CAUSA), could be seen as a liability in the council positions that require such a large time commitment.

However, Lee says that she is willing to forego her commitments to other activities if she thinks it is necessary to be a more effective council president.

Gusmorino says he has no doubts that Lee will be a hard-working president if elected.

He recalls when a “doohickey” in the fried dough machine broke at Fall Fest this October and Lee went all the way to Porter Square to find a replacement part so students could have fried dough.

And Lee will need to work hard to sustain the success that Gusmorino has had with the council. The council has achieved almost all of its goals this year, including extending house party hours and developing a prize for superior advising.

But Gusmorino is convinced that Lee is the best person to succeed him.

“There’s no one I trust more to fill my big orange shoes,” he says.

—Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu.