STUDENT COUNCIL REPRESENTS UNDERGRADUATE OPINION

When the student at the long table in Memorial Hall on registration day asks you to cough up five bucks, don't try to put him off by saying you've already subscribed to the Lampoon--he's only trying to collect money to finance the activities of the Student Council.

Harvard's Student Council was founded in 1908 "to cooperate thoroughly with the Faculty in raising the general intellectual standard, to bring the governing bodies of the University expressions of undergraduate opinion, and to cooperate with the Athletic Committee."

Of these purposes the first was either in example of current idealism or referred to a contemporary condition of laxness, and the second is now a minor duty of that body. Expressing undergraduate opinion to the governing boards of the University is now the Council's main function.

Wields no Stick

Representing the student body in the College government is its business, and a majority of its seventeen members (six from the Junior and eleven from the Senior class) are elected by their classmates. The rest are appointed by the elected men to ensure that all groups are represented.

The Council has no direct authority over the student body as a whole; self-government of this sort does not exist at Harvard. But if does administor and support financially several functions and activities of classes and organizations.

It runs, Senior Class elections and Senior Album elections. Of much more interest to Freshmen is the Council's financial guarantee of all Freshman extra-curricular activities, such as dances and the Freshman Red Book (annual yearbook). Besides these, it contributes to the support of the Freshman Smoker, the class got-together and variety show in the spring.

Takes Care of Charities

Phillips Brooks House, the social service center, is supported by a large donation from Student Council funds. About a thousand dollars in scholarship money is given to needy students who are not eligible for aid from the University.

The continual bother of solicitation by many local charities is avoided by the Council's agreement with these organizations that they will accept donations from it and forego personal convassing. These donations are made possible by students' contributions.

Last year the Council made an exception to its no-canvassing rule to permit a Red Cross drive for funds to be made at Harvard. Presumably exceptions will be made again this year for specially urgent war-relief campaigns.

Direct relations between the Freshman class and the Student Council are provided by a Junior member of the Council whose job it is to supervise Freshman activities. He is assisted by a Sophomore appointed by the Council.

Council at Work

Describing the non-political nature of the Student Council, a past Council President said that "the only way to be a big man on the Harvard scene is to be over seven feet tall." It makes no attempt to control undergraduate opinion, he said, because in trying to do so, "It would be both wasting its time and losing its prestige."

The Council exercises its office of student judge and reporter by means of reports on questions which seem significant from the undergraduate point of view. Except when it issues such reports or when it periodically awards small "scholarships" to needy students, the Council is seldom either seen or heard.

Two of the Council's most important reports in the past two years have dealt with the same subject: the state of Harvard education. The first report, published in the spring of 1939, urged that Harvard's curriculum be broadened and undergraduate specialization decreased. Later reissued in printed form, this report has been sent to colleges and universities all over the country, and served as the basis for discussion at several Faculty meetings last year.

Last June the Council issued a second "education" report, implementing and expanding the 1939 document.

Other Council reports in the past decade have dealt with the over-crowding of the Houses; the Faculty tenure system, and its impact on undergraduate instruction; and the relation between intramural and minor sports in the College athletic program.