Members Forego Extra Terms

An unusually high number of Undergraduate Council (UC) representatives—23—have opted not to run for reelection this fall, leaving some Houses with fewer candidates than the number of spots available.

A total of 86 students are running in the UC election, which started yesterday and ends Friday. This represents a sharp decrease from 2003, when a record 185 students ran for seats on the council, and 2004, when 120 students ran.

According to an Election Commission e-mail sent to House lists on Saturday, only one candidate is on the ballot in Quincy House, only two candidates are on the ballot in Dunster House, and four houses have only three candidates on the ballot. Each upperclass House has three elected seats on the council.

Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, who chaired the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) last semester, said he believes the highly charged atmosphere on the council last spring was a factor in his and others’ decisions not to seek reelection.

Ian W. Nichols ’06 was elected vice president in a split ticket with UC President Matthew J. Glazer ’06, but resigned last May amid speculation that he was forced out. Nichols was replaced in a special election by Clay T. Capp ’06, Glazer’s original running mate.

“It became very controversial, very politically charged. There was a lot of uneasiness surrounding the whole process,” said Chadbourne.

“When the second highest person of an organization resigned, it left a bad taste in peoples mouth,” he added.

Resmi A. Charalel ’07 also pointed to tensions at the end of last semester as one of the reasons she didn’t run again.

“I definitely lost a little respect for the organization because of [last year],” said Charalel. “It just isn’t as effective an organization that I would have liked. There are a lot of politics that I didn’t want to be involved in that limit the effectiveness of the organization.”

But SAC member John S. Haddock ’07, who is running for reelection, painted a picture of a UC ready to move on from the tension of last year.

“The circumstances in the spring were not ideal,” said Haddock. “Matt Glazer and Clay Capp have done everything to move on from that. Everyone agrees that it was very unfortunate that there was so much tension on the UC, and that they have done as good a job as [can be] expected to move on.”

Chadbourne also charged that not enough was done to encourage upperclass students to run for positions on the council. While Glazer and Capp went door-to-door in the Yard, residents in the Houses received only e-mails posted to House and group lists.

“In the future, there needs to be a more well-coordinated plan so that we are recruiting people,” said Chadbourne.

Benjamin W. Milder ’08, who is running as a write-in candidate in Dunster House, said he missed the deadline to register his candidacy because of a lack of information.

“I didn’t know about the filing period or about the dearth of candidates,” Milder wrote in an e-mail.

Glazer, however, attributed the lower turnout of candidates running to a better understanding of the commitments of the UC.

“It’s not as easy to be a representative,” said Glazer. “When I went door-to-door, one of the things I told everybody was to leave 10 hours a week. We obviously weren’t trying to discourage people, but we wanted candidates who knew about the time commitments.”

Some UC representatives cited other obligations as a reason not to seek reelection.

“I need to turn a little more time to my studies, want to focus a little bit more on that,” said E.E. Keenan ’07. “My reasons for not running again are really more out of necessity than out of desire. It kind of breaks my heart to leave the council.”

According to Michael B. Love ’08, chair of the Election Commission, if there are vacancies after the election, special elections will be held for the districts in question.

Despite the lack of candidates running, Love said that the number of new candidates running for UC representative positions is still relatively high.

“A majority of incumbents, and in fact a surprisingly large number, chose not to seek reelection this year. If they had, we actually would have had a noticeably larger number of candidates in the upperclass houses than last year,” Love wrote in an e-mail.

Glazer said he was not concerned with the low number of students running for seats on the council.

“The numbers don’t seem that off to me. I know there are a lot of strong candidates running write-in campaigns,” he said.

—Staff writer Alexander D. Blankfein can be reached at ablankf@fas.harvard.edu.