Council Sells Discount Card

The Undergraduate Council this week will begin selling its UCard, giving students a discount at participating Square businesses.

Council members sold around 175 of these cards—which debuted last April—in the first week of the year, but took a hiatus for the council elections.

Michael R. Blickstead ’05, co-chair of the council’s Campus Life Committee (CLC), wrote in a message to the council e-mail list yesterday that the UCard will go on sale this week for five dollars each.

“The card will prove quite valuable to students,” Blickstead wrote.

The message, which council representatives were asked to forward to their Houses and proctor groups, listed 16 discounts for cardholders.

The council has ordered 500 cards in preparation for the sales, said CLC Vice Chair Christina L. Adams ’06.

Council representatives are set to sell the cards in Annenberg and House dining halls, although the dates have not yet been set.

According to Adams, the program is not aimed at fundraising for the council.

“It’s a non-profit thing. It’s not a fundraiser thing,” she said. “It’s as much to the benefit of the student as to the benefit of the stores.”

The stores offer discounts to take advantage of the publicity and to attract more student customers, she said.

“For five bucks, it seems like a good deal, considering how expensive Harvard Square places are,” said Maria E. Barth ’06.

At last night’s council meeting, President Sujean S. Lee ’03 also announced that the position of council technology coordinator remains unfilled, the only appointed seat that is still vacant.

The vacancy was left by Jared S. Morgenstern ’03, who was not elected to the council this year. Morgenstern spearheaded the effort to create a new Web-based council voting system. Due to technological and administrative difficulties with the new system, the council general elections were delayed two days at the beginning of this month.

Also at last night’s meeting, Student Affairs Committee Chair Rohit Chopra ’04 reminded the council that the deadline for candidacy statements for membership on four of the student-faculty committees is 10 p.m. tonight.

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.