DISSENT

IF THE Undergraduate Council wants to lose its last shreds of student respect, it should go right ahead and abandon all efforts to change University policy on serious issues.

Cornflakes, chocolate milk and beer-less parties are nice, but how about a democratic disciplinary system, a liveable alcohol policy, more flexible meal plans, a student center, divestiture from South Africa and a full explanation of how President Bok and company spend our astronomical tuition every year?

Many UC members seem to have forgotten that student tuition pays Bok's salary and that student representatives have every right to the administration's respect. They also seem to forget the successes of their counterparts at other schools. At George Washington University, for example, the student government recently extracted a guarantee that tuition would not increase more than 10 percent each year.

Student government at Harvard is indeed in sorry shape--and the only way the new Undergraduate Council administration can earn the respect of constituents is by showing more political courage, not less, than did its predecessors.