STILL MORE ON THE COUNCIL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The Harvard Student Council has no place, no function, no purpose in the Harvard Community. It cannot purport to represent student opinion either to the faculty or to the nation. It is completely out of touch with both faculty or to the nation. It is completely out of touch with both faculty and student body. There are no reasons to justify the existence of an organization which only has a dining hall and a parietal hours report to show for its "stupendous" labor for the last seven months. . . .

Historically speaking, the Council maintained that it had two important functions. First, it represented student opinion to the faculty. Secondly, it regulated extra-curricular activities. In recent years, however, advocation of the latter has become both nonsensical and foolish in that all undergraduate activities pride themselves upon their autonomy and they definitely would not submit themselves to supervision by the Council. The former is a more interesting study, however. Earlier, Student Councils did issue interesting and valuable reports which did reflect student opinion on various facets of university life, but the Student Council created a permanent committee, the SCCEP, which gradually usurped this function. The SCCEP is better qualified to do the job in that its members are recommended by departmental beads on the basis of academic merit. . . .

Having lost those two functions, the Council turned to other means for prestige in a hostile community. The materialization of Twentieth Century Week last fall marked the beginning of new "Spectacular Activities Policy." Despite the hard work of chairman Roger Leed, the program did not live up to expectations. The reason for this failure was that Harvard has big names visiting the University at all times of the year, resulting in a blase attitude toward any group of "second Stringers. . . ."

One of the most damaging points of the new policy is that the Council being sufficiently wrapped up in its own problems cannot respond and challenge its energy to situations where it is most needed. The Yale Swimming Meet Ticket fiasco sufficiently illustrates a situation where the Council failed to respond and investigate a situation that would have been most appreciated by the student body.

The Council has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. The most obvious answer is that this cumbersome, anachronistic organization must be destroyed, and some more efficient organization established in its place. The idea of a House Committee Council seems to fit the role best. This plan would have a representative from each of the nine House committees along with a representative of the Freshman Council. This form of organization would have two important advantages. First, it would be more representative and secondly, it would be much closer to the problems, such as parietal hours, which spring up in the course of the year.

It is obvious that unless some change is made, the Harvard Student Council will continue to serve as an organization where one man can vent his political ambitions in the name of the Harvard student body. Travis J. Williams '63,   Former Member,   Harvard Student Council.