Report Calls For UC Restructuring

The final report of the Committee to Review the Undergraduate Council—informally called the Dowling Report—was released yesterday, calling for an extensive restructuring of the Council and the College’s student-faculty committee reporting system.

The report, which has no decision-making power, marks the first time the UC had been formally reviewed by a student-faculty committee in its 25 year history. Neuroscience Professor John E. Dowling ’57—who chaired the review committee—also chaired the committee that established the UC in 1982.

“I think it’s going to start a necessary discussion, but it’s just starting,” said UC President Andrea R. Flores ’10.

The proposed structure includes three student-faculty committees: College and Residential Life, to be chaired by the Dean of the College; Undergraduate Education, to be chaired by the Dean of Undergraduate Education; and Student Services, to be chaired by the College’s Dean of Administration.

Under this proposal, each of the College’s many student-faculty sub-committees would answer to one of the three primary committees. Each of the three advocacy committees that would replace SAC on the Council would also correspond to one of the three proposed student-faculty committees.

If the proposals are adopted, the student-faculty committees would be given decision-making power, a step-up from the current advisory role they now serve. Under the proposal, the committee’s decision could be vetoed by the chair of the committee, but that veto could be overridden with a 2/3 vote.

The report also recommends increasing the size of the Council.

Ten committee members were chosen in March 2008, and the body has convened 12 times since then.

The five faculty members of the group were Dowling, Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67, Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd, Mather House Master Sandra R. Naddaff ’75, and Eric M. Nelson ’99, a government professor and former UC member.

Students on the committee included two recent members of the UC: former UC Vice-President Randall S. Sarafa ’09 and Prithvi R. Shankar ’09, and three with no UC experience: Gee Hyun “Sussan” Lee ’09, Heidi E. Kim ’09, and Jamison A. Hill ’10, who is also The Crimson’s magazine chair.

“My hope is that the report isn’t just seen as random musings from some individuals,” Sarafa said. “[People should] view this report with a certain amount of gravity.”

The report spent a little over three pages addressing the committee’s resolutions—which were included with the committee’s unanimous approval—and a little over seven pages discussing issues on which they had been unable to reach a conclusion.

The introductory portion of the report warned: “It might appear that this report has been written prematurely, that insufficient firm and detailed recommendations are being provided.”

It went on to defend the release of the report, citing the fact that two committee members are on leave for the spring and that four students on the committee will graduate in June.

Former SAC Chair Jon T. Staff ’10 said he was disappointed by the report’s ambiguity.

“I had high hopes that the Dowling Report would layout a specific and obtainable path to move forward,” Staff said.

The back-and-forth debate that the document addresses after its resolutions, Staff said, “has been going on formally and informally for a long time. Really all they did was write those down for us.”

Dowling defended the report, saying he thought it brought up issues that would be helpful to both the UC and the College.

“It turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be when we started digging into it,” he said.

Several members of the committee said they considered the proposed hierarchical committee structure to be one of the most significant recommendations in the report.

The Dowling Report also recommended that the UC’s Finance Committee consist of approximately eight to ten members, who would serve on a rotating basis.

According to the UC Web site, FiCom currently has 14 members.

“It would make sense to make FiCom smaller, because it would give more reps the opportunity to work with advocacy and I think a lot of students run for the UC to be a part of the advocacy side of things,” said Flores, who spent her UC career in FiCom.

—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.