UC Campaign Begins, SEC Vote Tabled

As the campaigns for Undergraduate Council (UC) president and vice president kicked off yesterday, the UC voted at its meeting to postpone debate for a second time on a constitutional amendment that would create an independent body to coordinate social events.

The proposed amendment would dissolve the council’s Campus Life Committee and replace it with an autonomous, directly-elected Social Events Committee (SEC) that would be responsible for planning campus-wide social events.

While the amendment was slated to be debated at last night’s meeting, UC President Matthew J. Glazer ’06 and Vice President Clay T. Capp ’06—co-sponsors of the amendment—submitted a motion to extend debate until after campaigning ends.

“Due to the confluence of...factors—the continued feedback from students, the chance to further engage the student body, the draws on members’ time and energy caused by the campaign—Clay and I propose that the Council entertain a motion to postpone the debate of the SEC bill for two weeks, at which point debate would formally resume,” Glazer wrote in an e-mail to the council before its meeting last night.

Glazer, who last week spoke against postponing the amendment, said last night that he felt that more time was needed and maintained that the UC campaigns were a boon, not a hindrance to discussion of the amendment.

“There is just more discussion that should go on before ending it with a vote,” Glazer said after the meeting. “I think we are using the unique opportunity of the campaign to engage the student body in this issue.”

However, Glazer said that the council was still focused on serving the student body during the hectic campaign season.

“The semester’s agenda has been set,” said Glazer. “My job and Clay’s job is to make sure it’s business as usual.”

In other business, the UC lent its lobbying support to the South Asian Studies Initiative, which advocates centralizing resources, expanding offerings, and creating a certificate program in South Asian Studies.

The council also passed two other resolutions, one concerning the creation of a student advisory committee for Harvard construction projects and the other calling for the establishment of a formal process for administering the Student Activities Fund, a University Hall fund designated for large social events.

Last night’s meeting took place on the first day of official campaigning for the council’s top two leadership positions.

According to Election Commission Chair Michael B. Love ’08, two of the three campaigns already have standing violations.

The Election Commission monitors the campaigns, and gathers evidence of violations and assigns monetary penalties at its meetings.

Love said that the John S. Haddock ’07-Annie R. Riley ’07 campaign has one standing violation—an illegally placed poster on a proctor message board in Pennypacker Hall.

While the John F. Voith ’07-Tara Gadgil ’07 campaign has not been fined, “there are current violations pending to be resolved,” Love wrote in an e-mail.

However, Voith attributed the violations to a misunderstanding, saying that his campaign put up posters for both candidates on the ticket separately, assuming that this satisfied the commission’s rules.

“There was some unclear wording in the rules,” Voith said in an interview last night. “As we read it, we thought we could put two posters up, one for each candidate. However, Love explained to us that it was the Election Commission’s intention that both candidates be on the same poster.”

Voith said his campaign had taken down its posters after receiving notice from the commission.

Love did not report any violations for the Magnus Grimeland ’07-Thomas D. Hadfield ’08 campaign.

—Staff writer Alexander D. Blankfein can be reached at ablankf@fas.harvard.edu.