UC Demands Seat At the Policy Table

Representatives from the Undergraduate Council and several other student groups gathered last night to discuss a list of grievances and demands that calls for student representation in Harvard’s administrative bodies.

UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 said undergraduates should be represented committees with policy-making power, and not only advisory committees.

Currently, students sit with faculty members on at least a half-dozen committees, but the recommendations of those committees can be overturned by Harvard administrators, Petersen said.

“Too often the administration allows students and faculty to participate in University governance in only a superficial way,” Petersen said.

The UC plans to submit the list of grievances to Interim Dean of the Faculty David Pilbeam, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, and President-elect Drew G. Faust today, and Petersen said the UC will request that they respond within a week.

Students at last night’s meeting said they would seek to gain student representation on the Administrative Board, the 35-member committee that examines undergraduate cases of academic and disciplinary misconduct.

Gross said last month that he is considering undertaking a review of the Ad Board’s procedures next fall and that students may serve on the committee that will carry out the review.

Students present last night also said that undergraduates should have formal input into contract decisions that directly affect them.

This week, the College announced that it had taken out a contract with Collegeboxes, the storage and shipping company that drew complaints from students last year. College administrators said the company had reformed its operations, but undergraduates have expressed skepticism about using Collegeboxes again.

Students attending last night’s meeting said the College should have consulted more extensively with current undergraduates before making the decision.

Student groups in attendance included the Darfur Action Group, the Woodbridge Society, the Harvard South Asian Association, the Darfur Action Group, the Woodbridge Society, the Harvard South Asian Association, the Harvard College Democrats, and the Harvard Republican Club.

Some in attendance took issue with the timing of the list’s delivery, coming only a few weeks before students leave campus for the summer and just after the University responded to a major UC campaign for calendar reform.

“It is unfair to say we’re being ignored, given that we’ve just heard back,” said Rebecca R. Gong ’08, president of the Woodbridge Society. “We don’t want to present the undergraduate student body as an enemy.”

Petersen added that the issue had to be brought to the table now so that the administration could follow through with changes in the fall.

University spokesman Joe Wrinn declined to comment late last night.

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.