Committee Denies Link With Class Video

Three seniors are creating a class video that they are promoting as a product sanctioned by the Senior Class Committee (SCC) and the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA). But according to sources from those two organizations, no official connection with the makers of the video exists at this point.

“We don’t have an official relationship,” said Emily R. Murphy ’03, a member of the SCC, though she said she and other members of the committee were excited about the video.

And F. Hoopes Wampler, the director of college-wide affairs for HAA who attends the monthly SCC meetings, characterized the video-makers’ claims as “a little premature.”

But the website says the video is “in association with the Harvard Alumni Association and the Senior Class Committee,” and in an e-mail sent to Adams House seniors, its creators say they have the backing of these official senior class organizations.

Michael D. Cornish ’03, one of the video makers, said that the SCC has always been supportive of the project.

He said he had a favorable impression after his original meeting with the SCC in February.

“They looked at our website; we explained the whole premise and showed the research we had up until that point,” he said. “They said they would support it 100 percent.”

But last Wednesday, at a regularly-scheduled meeting, the committee discussed its affiliation with the video.

No conclusion was reached at that meeting, though an SCC member said First Class Marshall Krishnan N. Subrahmanian ’03 stated that there was not yet any official relationship between the committee and the senior class video.

Last night, Subrahmanian and Rudrabhishek Sahay ’03, the senior class treasurer, met with the makers of the video to hammer out an agreement, the SCC member said.

The committee member did not know the outcome of that meeting but said that the committee had not yet taken the proper steps to form an official relationship.

“There needs to be a written agreement and then the class committee will vote on it,” the member said.

Subrahmanian and Sahay declined to comment on the contents of the meeting. The entire class committee is not scheduled to meet again until April.

The senior class video is a for-profit venture run by three members of the senior class: Cornish, James C. Harrington ’03 and Luke R. Long ’03, who is also a class marshal and a member of the SCC.

According to Cornish, about 1,000 videos would need to be sold at the $24.95 price tag to break even.

“In the end we’ll make a little bit of money,” Cornish said.

“We’ve bought the equipment,” he said. “All the money we’ve paid for out of our own pockets.”

The class video website, www.crimsonvideo2003.com, is ready to accept orders.

—Staff writer Andrew C. Campbell can be reached at acampbel@fas.harvard.edu.