AN ANSWER TO AL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

From the tone of the first two paragraphs of the recent article on the Student Council funds I thought freshmen were going to be patted on the head for showing such plentious school spirit, something most of us thought we had securely stuffed into some far distant locker along with a soggy, twelfth grade gym suit. As I read on I realized we were indeed being patted on the head in much the same manner as one might ruffle the hair of a four year old after snatching his lollypop.

Mr. Hofeld's attitude and in fact the general dubious methods of the entire campaign only confirm a previously held conviction that the Student Council at Harvard College is nothing more than a band of low, cheap, conniving pirates totally unprincipled in its savagery of extortion, a tight cliche (sic) which, after carefully replacing the windows in its office with mirrors, spends many pleasurable hours looking out and formulating student opinion. (formulating is really too strong a word to be used here as it implies a thinking process)

It is also nice to know that our ill-gotten money will be used nobly to enlarge a few delegates' capacity for sin, sex, and sadism at the National Convention. I have worked on Student Councils for the past three years and attended national as well as regional conventions. Nothing constructive ever comes of them. Nothing ever will. It is inherent in their ephemeral nature. Nothing the Council will do, assuming it will do anything beside buying its members season tickets to Durgin Park, could waste money in a more fruitless manner.

Laying the axe to the root, we should realize that the Student Council cannot justify its existence here and has no right to live, but, since in a bewildered moment we have all bought two thirds of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is our right if the constitution (if there is one) says so, to have first, an itemized accounting of all of last year's expenditures, second, periodic accounting of this year's and most important, repeal of National Student Association membership, a very feebly cloaked, padding maneuver. John Zeugner '60