Council's Role Unfairly Blasted by Editorial

To the editors:

It is deeply upsetting that The Crimson editorial board has chosen to overshadow and in effect dismiss the council’s ardent efforts with overblown rhetoric and disrespect toward council members’ hard work (Editorial, “Communication Failure, Again,” Oct. 3).

The Undergraduate Council under its current administration has made tremendous progress in the extent of its achievement, moving away from the practice of establishing short-lived and short-reaching resolutions to affecting change on campus. Before the efforts of the current leadership, the idea of regular musical concerts on campus was non-existent; whereas this year we have already organized sold-out concerts featuring the Roots, Black Eyed Peas and Dispatch and, more importantly, laid the foundation for a concert at Bright Hockey Arena, previously an impossibility. Tremendous progress has been made, and a concert at that venue is on the horizon.

Before the efforts of the current leadership, council technology was invisible to the student body. We have made it an issue, dedicating ourselves to creating an attractive, interactive and useful website that incorporates an improved voting system. The website will feature relevant information for the student body and contain the latest information on council events and services.

Admittedly, our first attempts at such huge endeavors have encountered obstacles; however, in no way has this been the result of “negotiations and agreements involving the administration” being left “to the last minute.” The Wyclef/Jurassic 5 concert was cancelled at the last minute by the administration, but this setback occurred after a year-long campaign to gain the administration’s approval. In fact, such approval was finally granted; the bands were booked and the venue secured. Unfortunately, permission for the concert was retroactively withdrawn days before tickets were scheduled to go on sale, forcing these efforts to be entirely discarded. Likewise, work on our new voting system began last June, after a bill for a technology revamp was passed in full council in the spring. Council leaders tried to maintain communication with the administration all summer regarding this project and naturally intensified such discussion in early September. Again, however, new concerns were raised last minute, perhaps due to the unprecedented nature of the project, forcing a delayed but successful launch. Finally, the council decided to end UC Books in order to concentrate on more useful initiatives, given the recent explosion of comparable online bookstores.

Labeling such events “miserable failures” is therefore extremely unwarranted. What would be more representative of the situation would be an emphasis on the groundbreaking nature of these efforts, and their contribution to the constant evolution of student life at Harvard.

The Harvard Undergraduate Council has come a long, long way. The current leadership has overseen accomplishments like the creation of the First-Year Social Committee, the formation of the Harvard Concert Commission and a complete overhaul of council technology. In unprecedented fashion, it provided undergraduates with a formalized avenue of voicing student input on the selection of the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and in conjunction with the Office of the President organized the most successful Springfest to date. With the approval and support of the Administration, the council also established a new Student-Faculty Advisory Committee on Environmental Responsibility and helped reduce the core requirement from eight courses to seven.

If The Crimson would prefer a tame, invisible student government, I’m afraid they won’t find one under this leadership. On the other hand, if they hope to see a council that attempts to challenge itself with revolutionary, innovative and, at times rebellious projects, then it seems that their mean-spirited and condescending editorializing will only hinder such efforts, undercutting the council’s goal of maximizing its effectiveness in lobbying the administration for change and improvement. The Undergraduate Council is tackling bigger and bolder initiatives; setting higher standards for ourselves; and witnessing greater success. Obviously such progress will be accompanied by disappointments and will face difficult hurdles. Still, such setbacks—not even The Crimson’s editorials—will deter the Harvard Undergraduate Council from striving ever harder to improve student life.

Sujean S. Lee ’03

Oct. 3, 2002

The writer is president of the Harvard Undergraduate Council.