Council Seats Difficult to Nab

Students vying for Undergraduate Council seats this year will face the most competitive election yet, Council leaders said yesterday.

According to Undergraduate Council (UC) Public Relations Director Benjamin W. Milder ’08, 125 students are competing for 33 slots this election cycle, which begins today and continues until Thursday, with an average of 3.79 candidates per seat.

This year is just a fraction more competitive than the previous record in 2003, when an average of 3.78 candidates ran per seat.

Every House election will be competitive, with at least three candidates per seat, and 77 freshmen will be vying for a total of eight UC seats.

This election is more than twice as competitive as last year’s, when 86 students competed for 49 seats. Last spring, the UC voted to cut the number of House representatives to two from three.

“It’s not just the seat reduction that has made this more competitive,” said Milder, who is running as an incumbent in the Dunster House race. “This is also the second-highest total number of candidates behind 2003.”

Although it is not unusual to have far more freshmen than upperclassmen run in the UC race, the number of first-year candidates has doubled from last year, as the number of seats has been reduced from 12.

“It’s a double whammy in terms of competitiveness,” Milder said.

UC President John S. Haddock ’07 said he thought that heightened interest was due to last spring’s restructuring, the “longest and most aggressive” recruitment efforts ever this fall. Voting is also taking place a week later than was the case last year.

“There’s a good chance that with more competitive elections, we can get the politics out of it,” Haddock said last night. “You want the UC to be the most diverse collection of interests and people on campus.”

Pamela C. Chan ’07, who was a Pforzheimer House representative last year and will be a candidate this year, said that she perceives a possible change in attitude towards the UC as a result of the restructuring.

“We actually voted to make it more difficult to get ourselves elected,” said Chan, who is also a Crimson editor. “I think that shows a little bit of responsibility. People have been waiting for something like that for a while.”

Michelle M. Parilo ’10, who is running against 19 other candidates in East Yard, said she felt optimistic about the competitive race.

“The more the better,” Parilo said last night. “If there’s so many people running—I think it’s just the best person for the job then.”

But with first-year races pitting about 20 candidates for every two UC seats, Edward J. Dumoulin ’10 said he is concerned that the race will turn into a “popularity contest.”

“There are a lot of people who threw their names into the hat, who wanted to win the seat, and have not really developed platforms,” said Dumoulin, who is running against 18 other first-years in the West Yard. “It makes me think that people see the UC as very prestigious and a way to advance themselves personally.”

—Staff writer Katherine M. Gray can be reached at kmgray@fas.harvard.edu.