Council Loses $500

As a result of low turnout among Harvard students for a bus trip to National Student Lobbying Day in Washington earlier this week, the Undergraduate Council spent more than $500 of student funds for bus seats that went unused..

Erica S. Eisenberg '86 who coordinated the council's sponsorships of the trip, said last night that she believed the money was lost because the council failed to publicize the trip adequately.

The council had allocated up to $675 to pay the full costs of 25 bus seats, and requested that students pay back $10 of their own money if they were not in serious financial need. Five of the seven students who took up the offer for a ride in Washington agreed to pay part of their way Eisenberg said.

The $536 loss resulted from the $27 for each seat not filled, Eisenberg said. She added however, that she did not regret the council's approval of the funds.

"You make a statement by funding a project, and sometimes the statement is equally important as the project itself," Eisenberg said. She explained that publicity for the event--supported by an additional $50 allocation--was ineffective because students had only a few days to decide whether to go between the council's approval on February 27 and the bus departure Sunday night.

"I also don't think Harvard students are customer to going down and making noise." she said.

More than 2000 students from schools nationwide--including 350 from Wesleyan University in Middletown. Conm--rallied in the Capitol Monday, discussing a variety of educational and financial aid issues with Congressmen and other officials.

The other half of the 50 seat bus was subsidized by Boston's Suffolk College, which had about 18 students for the trip, one Harvard traveler said Eisenberg said that none of the seven Harvard students was a council member