The Honorable Course

The Undergraduate Council has chosen its new second-in-command. Last Thursday, Council members elected Clay T. Capp ’06, who ran unsuccessfully for the post in December, to replace Ian W. Nichols ’06, who resigned the position on May 8. The circumstances of Capp’s selection, however, stand to deprive the new vice president of much needed legitimacy, and leave open to him just one honorable course of action: resignation.

To be sure, Capp’s election was legitimate under the council’s current bylaws. Under section 42.2 of the bylaws, “If the office of the Vice President…becomes permanently vacant, then the council will elect a successor at the next full council meeting.” That rule must change. It is simply inappropriate that the 2004-2005 membership of the council was able to choose Nichols’ successor without a poll of the student body or, at the very least, time for students’ to consider the candidates for the position. Given that many of the representatives who voted in Thursday’s election will graduate this June and that still more of them will not retain their seats in September’s general elections, it is somewhat mystifying that Capp’s election was able to take place. The council’s bylaws must be amended to keep this sort of history from repeating itself.

Such a rule alteration will not, however, sufficiently address the problems with Capp’s election. Capp holds the second most important seat in Harvard’s student government as a result of an undemocratic selection process, a reality that will not change with the modification of UC protocol called for by this newspaper. Capp—elected by the members of a council that has been marinating in its own notorious internal politics for eight months and not by the student body to which he is responsible as vice president—cannot claim any real kind of mandate.

Capp’s selection is illegitimate not only because of he was chosen by a deeply flawed electorate, but also because he was not subjected to scrutiny from the student body. Candidacies for Nichols’ vacant seat were announced before the vote at Thursday’s council meeting, which was barely (if at all) publicized. There was no real chance for students to even find out who the candidates were, let alone to tell their representatives how they felt about those candidates, before the election took place.

Given the illegitimacy of his own selection, Capp has only one choice if he intends to serve with any sort of mandate; he must resign to run in a special vice presidential election in the fall in which the student body—or, at the very least, the new Undergraduate Council membership—would have the chance to choose its second-in-command, and to grant or deny Capp the office that he now holds illegitimately.

Clay Capp is as qualified as any to serve as the vice president of the UC. The ultimate judgment on Capp’s qualifications must, however, rest with the students to whom he, as UC vice president, is responsible. Simply changing the rules for the next time the council’s vice president resigns unexpectedly does not go far enough to address the problems with Capp’s undemocratic selection. As President Matthew J. Glazer ’06 continues to push his agenda for council reform, it would be sadly hypocritical for his right-hand man not to relinquish the power that he now holds as a result of the very kind of procedural mishap that the council ought to fix. And though he is by no means bound to go beyond the council bylaws as they currently stand, Capp should seize the chance to demonstrate real commitment to the student body by choosing the honorable course, and by putting his fate in the hands of his peers.

Adam Goldenberg ’08, a Crimson editorial editor, lives in Grays Hall.