Council Breaks Ties With Ivy Group

In what Undergraduate Council members termed the most difficult vote in recent memory, the council voted last night to sever its affiliation with the Ivy Council (IC)-an organization with which the council has long questioned its connection.

The break with the IC signals the end of a rocky relationship with an organization meant to unite student councils from the eight Ivy League schools.

In January, the Undergraduate Council passed a resolution to review its connection with the IC at the end of the year and disaffiliate if the IC did not meet a series of reforms the council mandated. The council instructed the IC to submit budgets and schedules by set dates, to facilitate communication between schools using e-mail and to cut down on "frivolous" activities and expenditures.

In response, the IC's newly-elected president and vice-president came to speak on their organization's behalf, and many council members have acknowledged recent improvements. However, opponents of the IC say the changes have not gone far enough to make up for past problems.

Members disagreed to what extent the requirements of the January ultimatum had been met by the IC, but all sides agreed that the year's budgets and schedules were submitted late if at all and that the IC had not yet resolved its financial woes.

Multiple council members criticized the IC for using personal contributions from its members to finance its conferences, citing the $2,000 that council members Robert M. Gee `02 and Trisha S. Dasgupta `03 loaned the IC in February, only to be repaid last week.

But it's not just the money, Gee said.

"At one [IC] meeting, we just sat around in a circle for two hours and talked about our favorite memory as a child," he said.

Other council members questioned Harvard's use for the IC, saying that they should not need to pay a membership fee to communicate with students around the Ivy League.

"We can use listservs to communicate with other schools without being in the Ivy Council," said Todd E. Plants `01, chair of the council's Student Affairs Committee.

Of the IC's recent efforts at reform, Plants said, "it's just too little, too late."

But the council's decision did not come easily.

It took a final vote from Council President Paul A. Gusmorino `02 to create a 16-16 tie within the council-effectively defeating the motion to keep Harvard under the IC's auspices. The president's vote is only called for to create or break a tie.

"I think it's in everyones' best interests to take some time off from each other," Gusmorino said of the IC.

The close vote sparked a half-hour debate over parliamentary procedure that included a ruling over whether former council president Fentrice D. Driskell `01 could vote despite missing more than enough meetings to be expelled from the council.

Another question of procedure involved a call for a revote-in parliamentary procedure, a "division"-after a 16-15 vote in favor of the IC had been taken. Some council members had left the meeting before the tally had been announced, and IC opponents saw an opportunity to upset the decision.

Ultimately, Gusmorino added the tying vote to cause the council to break with the IC, but not before the meeting regressed into virtual chaos with officers shouting at each other as Gusmorino consulted over council procedure.

"This was our time to have a crazy parliamentary procedure meeting," Gusmorino said. "There were a number of unprecedented decisions made, and due process is important to me."

-Staff writer Alex B. Ginsberg can be reached at ginsberg@fas.harvard.edu.