A Costumed Council Amends Anti-Homophobia Bill

In the Undergraduate Council's Halloween meeting, council representatives in costume enacted a bill amending an anti-homophobia grant and another calling for increased accessibility for disabled students.

The meeting, which began with a humorous imitation of President Clinton by council treasurer Justin A. Barkley '02--who wore a blazer, dyed gray hair and heart-covered boxers--turned into a wide-ranging and sometimes acrimonious debate over how to combat hate on campus.

The council passed a bill to amend an anti-homophobia grant authorized this spring. After a gay tutor in Mather House was the target of repeated homophobic graffiti last year, the council voted to allocate $1,000 from its special fund to challenge a student group to host an anti-homophobia event.

Now, almost half a year later, no student group has applied for the money. Some council members said last night that it was time to set a final deadline for the challenge grant to expire.

"We made a six-month effort for this, so I hope you understand why we should let this go," Robert M. Gee '02 said.

The bill, sponsored by Blake J. Boulerice '04, said that all applications were due at the end of November and that if no group applied, the money would go into the council's grants fund.

Boulerice argued that the deadline would encourage groups to apply for the money. He told the council that several groups had approached him with an interest in the funds.

But some wondered if the time limit would make the anti-homophobia bill any more successful than before.

"There's nothing here to say that it'll be more successful with a deadline that without," Steven Chung '01.

First-year member Fred Smith proposed an amendment that would have allowed the grant money to go towards any "anti-hate" measure rather than specifically concentrating on homophobia.

The council voted to debate the amendment, overruling a decision by President Fentrice D. Driskell '01 that the motion was not germane.

"There are a lot of kinds of hate we should be fighting," council secretary John F. Bash '03 said. "We can do a lot more good by combating hate as a whole."

Supporters argued that the incidents that prompted the challenge grant were too old to be salient to students anymore.

Boulerice responded that homophobia on campus was just as present as ever.

"We don't need to wait for something to happen. We need to take action now," he said.

The amendment to expand the grant to all anti-hate measures failed, but the council passed the time limit bill by a vote of 29-9 with one abstention.

The bill does not provide any funding for publicity about the grant, but council members said that they will use the uc-announce e-mail list.

"People aren't going to apply for this because they see a random poster in the Yard. They'll apply because they hear about it in their student groups," Todd E. Plants '01 said.

One final area of controversy centered around whether the grant money should be returned to the grants fund instead of the special fund it originally came from.

The challenge grant was not a grant but an "extension of the advocacy efforts of the [Student Advisory Committee]," committee chair Paul A. Gusmorino '02 argued.

Members of the council's Finance Committee (FiCom) said that the grant tried to circumvent the council's normal grant-giving process--and that the money would be better spent if FiCom had had oversight.

"The way we're going about this is the wrong way," John P. Marshall '01 said.

In the end, the council also decided to give the money back to the grants fund, even though it did not originally come from there.

"It doesn't make any sense to take money from one pot and then, when it comes back, to put in a totally different pot," Plants said.

In other debate, the council unanimously passed a bill to try to make campus events more accessible to people with disabilities. The bill, proposed by Stephen N. Smith '02, recommended that student groups indicate on their posters whether events are wheelchair accessible.

The point of the bill, Smith explained, had less to do with disabled students--who are often aware of the University's resources--than with other members of the Harvard community.

"There are faculty members, staff, parents and community members for whom this information will be really helpful," Smith said.

Dorothy Weiss '01, a member of EMPOWER, a student group that works with disabled students, called Smith's bill "an important first step" in increasing student awareness about disabled people.

EMPOWER is working on a room-by-room accessibility study of Harvard's facilities.

In general council business, vice president John A. Burton '01 announced the first round of council attendance warnings.

Under a newly revised attendance policy, implemented after serious attendance issues last spring, council members may miss no more than two full meetings or two committee meetings or three of either.

Burton issued two warnings last night, to David B. Orr '01 of Cabot House and B.J. Averell '02 of Dunster House. He also announced that Erica A. Farmer '01 of Currier House and Benjamin L. McKean '02 of Cabot House have resigned from the council.

Michael Rosenberg '01 of Cabot House also missed last night's meeting--his third absence. If Orr is expelled, Cabot House may be left entirely without representation on the council.

--Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.