The Four Four-Year Veterans

When they arrived at Harvard four years ago, they were former high school student politicos. As freshmen they decided to run for Harvard's only legitimate student government--the Undergraduate Council--in its first year of existence.

The graduation today of Douglas A. Winthrop '86, Kamala S. Lakhdhir '85-86, Ethan H. Cohen '86, and Steven A. Nussbaum '86 marks the end of the council's first generation; next year no member will have been on the council since its inception.

"This is the end of an era. The first cycle of the council is complete," says this year's Undergraduate Council Chairman Brian C. Offutt '87.

"There was a lot of anticipation of what it could be," Winthrop says about the aura of excitement that pervaded the council in its first year.

During his four-year tenure, the Quincy House social studies concentrator says he has seen a shift in the direction of the council. "It started off wondering where it should go, how it should proceed," Winthrop says.

In the struggle between activists and bureaucrats that has plagued the council throughout its short stint on the scene, Winthrop has remained a middle-of-the-road moderate, serving each of his four years on the student services committee and the student-administrator Committee on College Life (CCL), which he says gave him "the opportunity to deal with a broader range of problems and get listened to by administrators."

The council should handle matterspragmatically, he says, tackling some issues withan aggressive approach and others by writingreports. Some of the council's most importantaccomplishments, Winthrop says, have been "thingsthat are not earth-shattering, but they make adifference," such as extending library hours. Overthe years the council has learned "to do thingsthoroughly and not just shoot from the hip," hesays.

"The administration's going to close itsdoors," if the council takes an acitivist approachon every issue, he says. But Winthrop, who will beworking in Washington next year, also says, "Wecan go too far and get buried in paper work andbureacracy."

One of the council's most outspoken liberalmembers, Lakhdhir says, "The council should bemore active. We have to speak out and speak outwell." Lakhdhir, a social studies concentrator whois going to China next year to teach English,resigned from the council in the middle of thissemester.

In her freshman year, a year before Winthropand his cohorts arrived, Lakhdhir ran for thenow-defunct Student Assembly. She lost.

In the spring of her sophomore year, a placeopened up on the Adams House delegation to theUndergraduate Council, and Lakhdhir filled it.

"It was a lot more liberal," Lakhdhir says ofthe council in its first year. "There was more ofan activist sense on council." One of thehighlights of Lakhdhir's sophomore spring, shesays, was the establishment of the Endowment forDivestiture (E4D), an alternative to the SeniorClass Gift that holds contributions in escrowuntil Harvard divests of its $416 million in SouthAfrica-related investments. Lakhdhir acted asco-president of E4D this spring.

Lakhdhir, who has served on the academics andsocial committees of the council, has spoken outin protest of sexism and council faux pas.After she had resigned, Lakhdhir attended a weeklycouncil meeting to denounce a council forumadverisment that read, "Come Bitch at Us." Shecalled it sexist and offensive and demanded anapology, which she received.

Earlier in the term, Lakhdhir made a motion tochange the name of the Adams House Raft Race. Thecouncil had decided to take charge of the annualevent, calling it the Harvard Adams House RaftRace. Lakhdhir asserted that the name should bethe Harvard-Radcliffe Adams House Raft Race togive women equal billing.

Lakhdhir remembers a similar incident in thecouncil's first year at its bylaws meeting, whichlasted until 12:30 a.m. "One of the big fights waswhether we'd have to write his andher. There were enough women in the roomthat we won."

Lakhdhir says she sees inherent problemsinterfering with the council's goals. "Every yeartwo-thirds of the council is new," she says."These people don't know anything. Theirperceptions and knowledge are very small. It'svery difficult to get things moving."

This year Lakhdhir watched the council becomepolarized as the liberal activists and the moreconservative report-writers came into conflict."In past years, we all had a common vision. Thisyear that vision has splintered," she says.

But Lakhdhir says she does not believe theseproblems will bring the council down. "I don'tbelieve in three years then death," she says,referring to a pattern that has plagued Harvard'sother student governments.

Unlike its predecessor the StudentAssembly--which was penniless and not recognizedby the University--the Undergraduate Council has abudget of roughly $64,000 a year. Eachundergraduate yearly pays the council $10 on histerm bill. One-third of this money goes toward thecouncil's operations budget, and the councildisperses two-thirds of it in grants toundergraduate organizations.

"The council's not going to die so long as ithas money. When you have money, things continue,"Lakhdhir says. Control of the purse strings, shesays, is exciting and makes the council membersfeel important. "Previous to that, so many thingsjust didn't get funded."

Cohen, another four-year council veteran, doesnot have as optimistic a view of the council'sfuture as Lakhdhir. "I at least see it continuingto exist for the next couple of years," he says."As for the next 10 years, I don't know."

Cohen, who served as both treasurer andsecretary of the council, agrees with Lakhdhirthat the council's problems stem partly from itshigh membership turnover each year. "Sometimesit's wonderful because you get an infusion of newblood," the Quincy House resident says. "Ifthere's too high a turnover, you lose theexpertise."

Cohen says he has also seen the council'scomposition change. The members have become morediverse, and they have changed direction fromwanting a politically active council to one thatsolves more pragmatic, practical problems likeextending dining hall hours, he says.

The presence of students who had helped createthe council, he says, gave its members aprogressive view of the student government. "Theyhad helped to conceptualize it, and there theywere."

Throughout his council career, Cohen maintainedthat the student government should attack issuescentral to undergraduates. Cohen, an appliedmathematics concentrator, says the now-famousSummer Storage Report, which stopped the Collegefrom discontinuing summer storage forundergraduates, is the precedent that the councilshould follow. "The secret to the council isattacking issues that have some effect onstudents," he says.

In the split between activists andreport-writers, Cohen says he generally favorswriting a report, but it should be short, so thatcouncil members and other people will read them.But Cohen, who will be working for a Bostonmanagement consulting firm next year, warnsagainst the council's over-production ofpaperwork, adding that the council's xeroxing billtotals at least $4000 a year.

"I think over the course of the four yearswe've lost sight of our overarching goal of makingHarvard a more democratic and moral place," saysNussbaum, the last member of the First Generation."I think we've failed in the last four years tomake Harvard any more democratic."

Nussbaum, who calls himself an activist, saysthat as long as students serve not ondecision-making bodies, but on bodies that makeonly recommendations to the administration,Harvard will remain undemocratic. The council'sfounders had that vision in mind, the Mather Housesenior says, but this year's council faltered.

Although he never ran for office, Nussbaum hasbeen one of the council's most influential, vocalmembers. "What I've been doing when you've heardme yelling and shouting at the meetings is tryingto keep alive the vision of the council that wasthe vision of the founders," he says.

"I'm sick of discussing attendance, and I'msick of discussing furniture," he says. "We shouldspend more time on important, long-range goals.Chocolate milk is really nice and good, but it'san easy thing to win. It's not particularly apressing, all-encompassing issue," he says,referring to the council's successful fight forchocolate milk in the house dining halls.

After serving three years on the residentialcommittee and one year on the academics committee,Nussbaum says the council's first year was hisfavorite, although he calls alleviating thecrowding problem at Mather House last year his"big baby."

Nussbaum, a biology concentrator who willattend Albert Einstein Medical School next year,says that the council in its first yearaccomplished "substantiative things," includingestablishing E4D and endorsing a Harvard clericalworkers union. But this year it wasted timearguing about what issues it could discuss.