UC Debates Potential Reforms

The Undergraduate Council discussed potential changes to the Council’s structure during their general meeting yesterday.

In response to the Dowling Report, which was released March 2, UC members debated alternatives to its committee structure, the size of the Council, and the timing of elections.

The Dowling Report, a review charged with the task of considering student governance on campus, raised several issues that would require the UC to amend its constitution in order for the changes to be implemented.

The report recommended that the UC’s Finance Committee have a rotating membership, but that idea received some resistance from Council members.

“I think that everyone’s in agreement about FiCom in that there needs to be institutional memory,” said Sundeep S. Iyer ’11, FiCom chair, referring to the concern that a rotating membership would detract from the committee’s ability to make consistent decisions.

UC representatives also discussed the reports recommendation that the Student Affairs Committee split into three separate bodies.

Daniel V. Kroop ’10, the Student Relations Committee chair, agreed with the suggestion that SAC be divided and suggested that each member of the UC be assigned to an additional committee—either SRC, the Rules Committee, or FiCom.

Tamar Holoshitz ’10, SAC chair, said she thought that the Council’s advocacy goals would be better served if there were two advocacy committees.

“One thing to consider is the three committees inevitably have a huge amount of overlap,” she said.

The UC discussed the merits of increasing its membership to three people per district during the meeting.

The discussion was only the beginning of the UC’s effort to reevaluate it’s structure in light of the Dowling Report. Discussions will take place in FiCom and SAC committee meetings this week and will continue throughout the semester.

UC parliamentarian Eric N. Hysen ’11, who helped to facilitate the meeting, said he expected the process would be completed around pre-frosh weekend.

—Staff writer Brittany M. Llewellyn can be reached at bllewell@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.