Coffey Takes Credit Where It Isn't Due

This is a real big victory for the U.C.," proudly proclaimed one Rudd W. Coffey '97 only a couple of weeks ago, referring to his spectacular role in extending the ticket deadline for the Harvard-Yale Game. The falsity of that audacious statement now raises serious credibility questions for one of the more outspoken and diligent members of the Undergraduate Council.

Weeks ago, after many students missed the little-publicized application deadline for tickets to The Game, much grumbling ensued. Students were somewhat placated when tickets went on sale for a second time just one week before the event.

With an apparent problem solved, Coffey stepped forward to credit himself and our student government with a quick and satisfactory solution.

Yet, as athletic administrators and several council members have indicated, Coffey deserves no credit for the ticket offering. Indeed, his claims of a "real big victory for the U.C."--in addition to their questionable grammatical structure--appear to be just plain bunk.

As officials at the Harvard athletic ticket office can attest, it is a long-standing Harvard tradition to offer tickets the week of the Yale game. "This is not a new motion by the council," explained Edward J. Carey '55, ticket manager for the athletic department. "There were no extensive negotiations," Carey added. "We just do it like we do it every year The Game is held at Harvard."

So, unless the athletic ticket office is launching some diabolical conspiracy against Coffey, we can only conclude that Coffey attempted to take credit for something that he did not do. And Coffey admits that he placed phone calls to only three administrators.

Of course, some fellow council members are upset that Coffey did anything at all. It is true that Coffey lacked official approval by the council to conduct any ticket-related negotiations with the administration on behalf of the Undergraduate Council. "It was just something I as a council member took upon myself," Coffey admits.

But it seems that most members of the council have taken the proper attitude. "I would be more disturbed by the fact that Rudd may have misrepresented the facts in front of the whole council, than by the initiative he took to get the deadline extended," said council President David L. Hanselman '94-'95.

In general, we have little to complain about when it comes to Coffey. You must be dedicated to the council to dress up in an utterly ridiculous Angry Pilgrim outfit and parade around in front of 35,000 people at the Yale Game. And as co-chair of the Movement to Reform the Undergraduate Council, he has proven a dedicated and powerful advocate of reform on a body that desperately needs it.

Yet the issue at stake here is credibility. We don't mind if Coffey sidestepped some vague red tape to accomplish something that students clearly wanted.

We do mind, however, when a council member--indeed the co-chair of the Campus Life committee--goes out of his way to take full credit for something in which he and the council had no significant role.

Coffey has claimed that he "wasn't aware" of the second ticket sale ahead of time. If he was, then his actions would have represented blatant deception.

As it is, Coffey's proclamations seem to represent the confusion of a council member eager to bend the truth in order to improve the council's image.

"I'm not in this for the glory," Coffey told The Crimson. But what could he be after other than a little taste of "glory," as he jubilantly returned to the council with tales of his civic success?

But Coffey now admits that the fact that he (and the council) accomplished nothing "makes it less of a big victory for the U.C."

"Less of a big victory?" Other than three phone calls and a lot of inflated rhetoric, we wonder exactly what was the basis for Coffey's calling it a "victory" at all.