UC Recruits For UC Review

The Undergraduate Council has begun soliciting applications for student seats on the College’s Committee to Examine the Role of the Student in College Governance, even though Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith has given no indication as to whether he will accept the UC’s recommendations.

The Council will select three non-UC undergraduates and two UC members to fill the five students spots on the committee. Smith will have the final say on the makeup of the committee, and the UC’s selections do not guarantee that he will accept the Council’s choices.

“He is not bound in any way to the students we select,” Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Chair Jon T. Staff V ’10 said.

In an e-mail, Smith wrote, “I expect to review suggestions from the UC and from others, and then select an appropriately diverse group of students.”

UC members have been calling for applicants over House and other open lists, with an e-mail that begins, “Do you hate the UC?”

The application form on the UC’s Web site ensures that students are aware that, even if the Council chooses them, the final decision lies with Smith.

“While the Undergraduate Council will be recommending these students to serve on the committee, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has ultimate appointment authority over the committee,” the application notes.

This has not deterred students from applying though. Staff said yesterday that about two dozen students had already filled out applications.

The SAC will decide on the three non-UC members through an interview process. The UC members to be recommended for the committee will be chosen by nomination at the Council meeting this Sunday, according to Staff.

In addition to the decision to go ahead with the application process without affirmation from Smith, some UC members have expressed disapproval in the first place that the body is deciding who will evaluate its own role on campus, creating heated debate on the issue over the Council’s open list, UC-general.

“It is hugely important that the student representatives of this committee are independently selected...It does not make sense for the UC to pick the students who will be reviewing it,” wrote Alyssa Colbert ’10, a Council representative from Winthrop House. “The selection of delegates should absolutely occur independently because the Committee must be autonomous.”

Another issue that delegates expressed concern about was the application deadline, which was initially last Friday, and whether it would give students enough time to decide to apply, when the Council didn’t start advertising the application until the middle of last week.

The UC ultimately decided to allay these worries by extending the due date by one week, until this Friday.

The review, less formally called “Dowling II,” will be chaired by neuroscience professor John E. Dowling ’57, who chaired the Committee to Review College Governance that founded the UC in 1982.

Dowling spoke at the UC’s Feb. 18 meeting, where he urged the Council not to seek to appoint students to the committee.

“The review has to be at arm’s length from the Council itself,” Dowling said, citing concerns that it would look to students “like it’s an inside job.”

Dowling was out of the office yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

UC President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 said that Dowling has since agreed at least to consider the students that the Council recommends. Sundquist said the UC will give the names to Dowling by Monday so meetings can begin in the coming weeks.

The committee will also include four faculty members or administrators, none of whom have been named yet.

The review, which is the first to examine the UC since the body’s creation in 1982, will also look at other aspects of student governance at Harvard, though it is as yet unclear what these are.

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.