A Response to Charges of Misconduct

Editor's Note: Following is the text of a letter sent by former Undergraduate Council member Anjalee C. Davis '96 to Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 yesterday. The Crimson in no way endorses the views or description of events contained in the letter. For more information, please see correction on page one.

Dear Dean Jewett:

I am writing to lodge a formal protest with regard to the Undergraduate Council's conduct during this week's campus-wide referendum. The security of ballots, to say the least, has been inadequate. Worse, after I documented the extent of the problems with the assistance of The Harvard Crimson and [Dean of Students Archie C. Epps. III], the council executives have responded by threatening me with both legal action and administrative proceedings, and have harassed me in a most inappropriate manner.

In accordance with the recommendations of both yourself and the Committee on College Life, I was invited to co-administer this referendum by Undergraduate Council Vice-President Joshua D. Liston '95. My activities have been to organize poll-watches at the various polling locations, to supervise the sealing of the ballot envelopes and their delivery to the council office, and to count the ballots, along with Mr. Liston and his representatives. During each meal, I have also personally inspected each of the dining halls to ensure that the polls were open and that the rules were being followed.

For the first day of balloting (Monday, May 9, 1994), I had arranged for student volunteers to collect the ballot envelopes at the end of dinner and deposit them with a tutor or other responsible person in the house. Mr. Liston had announced to the Undergraduate Council the previous evening that the ballots would be secured in the office of the Dean of Students. However, Mr. Liston had not made such an arrangement, and so he personally approved my proposal when I spoke to him at the Union during lunch on Monday. Without such a precaution, any council member "tabling" would be free, after the meal, to remove "Yes" ballots and replace them with "No" ballots.

However, after Monday's dinner balloting, I received several reports that council members had refused to honor the arrangements made by the student volunteers, and had removed the ballots from the dining halls. I was also informed that calls were made to Mr. Liston, and that he had specifically directed that the ballots be taken to the council office.

Since this was directly contrary to my arrangement with Mr. Liston, I went directly to the Undergraduate Council office to investigate what had occurred. I knocked on the door, which was answered by Aldona Clottey '95, a council representative from Adams House. There, on the desk, just inside the door, was a cardboard box labeled "U.C. Referendum Completed Ballots."

I was dumbfounded. This was exactly the problem that had caused the council's own referendum to be invalidated. I left at once, knowing I needed to find witnesses to document what was occurring. I returned home and called the campus press, thinking that they would be the most credible witnesses. There was no answer at the Independent. The person who answered at The Crimson suggested I come down to their office at once.

At this point, I became concerned that there might not be anyone in the council's office at this hour, it being reading period. I remembered that somewhere I still had my own office key, since there is no provision on the council for turning in one's key at the end of the year or when one resigns. In fact, that was my concern: anyone who had been elected to the council in the past several years, since the locks were last changed, had a key, and thus had access to the ballots. Upon locating my key, I went directly to The Crimson office.

Two sportswriters were there, and upon hearing my story, asked me to call Joe Matthews '95, the managing editor, at home. Mr. Matthews asked me why I had a key. I realized I had better check my bylaws and constitution to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong. In the interim, I decided to tell Mr. Matthews that I had borrowed it from another member. The managing editor informed me that he would send a reporter and a photographer to meet me at The Crimson office at once.

Unfortunately, the reporter did not arrive at the office until midnight. We proceeded directly to the Undergraduate Council office, and entered using my key. Neither of us touched anything. The reporter telephoned the photographer, who arrived at about 12:30 a.m. and documented the problem with the ballots.

Having documented the problem, my main concern was to get the ballots to a secure location. I was tempted to simply take them to a proctor myself, but I feared that might expose me to absurd allegations, even with The Crimson there as a witness. I telephoned Mr. Liston at home, instead, and pleaded with him to come to the office and escort the ballot box, with me, to the proctor who had agreed to take them. Unfortunately, he refused. I asked him at that time why he had backed out of the arrangement we had made, and he stated that he had changed his mind. Since I was unwilling to move or even touch the ballot box without his approval, I felt we had no choice but to leave.

On Tuesday morning I went directly to the office of the Dean of Students and registered my complaint with Dean Epps. He agreed that we could not move the ballots without Mr. Liston's approval, and immediately left a telephone message at Mr. Liston's room. Dean Epps agreed to store these ballots in his office, if Mr. Liston approved.

I returned to the council office just before noon, and spoke to John Mann '92-'94, the co-chair of the council's campus life committee. The ballot box was still out in the open. A quick examination showed that the box contained numerous loose ballots in addition to the envelopes. I telephoned Mr. Liston, who still refused to come move the ballots, despite having received the message from the dean. Mr. Mann then spoke to Mr. Liston, and prevailed upon him to allow the two of us to escort the box to the dean's office at that time. Since it was too late to make any arrangements for the Tuesday lunch ballots, we had no choice but to leave another box out for them.

Of course, since members of the council were transporting loose ballots and unsealed envelopes from the dining halls to the council office, there was ample opportunity to remove "yes" votes and replace them with "no" votes. None of us have any way of knowing whether this occurred. To reduce the likelihood of further problems, I asked Mr. Liston if I could supply special envelopes to the ballot table during each meal, and if I could request that the completed ballots be sealed in the envelope prior to leaving the ballot table. He agreed to this instruction, and I posted a sign, with his signature, in the office. Mr. Liston also agreed that we would meet in the office after dinner and transport the new ballot envelopes to the room of Keith Light, a senior adviser and admissions officer who serves as a freshman proctor in Canaday.

Unfortunately, the security for the Tuesday lunch ballots was even worse than for the Monday ballots. When I returned to the office at 7:15 p.m., I found that the second box had been stuffed with loose ballots. There is no way of determining whether these ballots were filled out at a polling place or in the council office.

My first inkling that the council officers had any objection to my going in and out of the office while administering this referendum was when I read the article in yesterday's Crimson (May 11 1994), in which the council secretary is quoted as threatening to file charges with the Administrative Board against The Crimson, and against me, if The Crimson ran a story about ballots being left unsecured in the office. Yesterday, during the day, I was further threatened with criminal charges by several council officers.

I checked my constitution and bylaws immediately when I returned home from the council office early Tuesday morning. There is absolutely no provision for turning in keys when one resigns, graduates, retires or loses an election. Again, this is exactly my objection to their conduct in leaving the ballot box out in the open in the office.

Everything about my conduct in this matter has been open, straightforward and public, from my request for witnesses, to my telephone call to Mr. Liston from the office, to my meeting with Dean Epps the next morning. I have done nothing but fulfill the request of the Committee on College Life and the invitation of Mr. Liston, to help ensure a free and fair election. As a result of doing my job, and doing it too well for the tastes of Mr. Liston and [council Secretary Brandon C. Gregoire '95], I am being barraged with threats of retaliatory action, ranging from criminal charges to Administrative Board action. I am therefore pleading with you to help resolve this matter before it winds up in the courts. I take their threats quite seriously and I feel quite fearful of them. And I do not feel I should be subject to this sort of harassment in retaliation for the wrongdoing I uncovered.

With regard to the election itself, my worst fears have come true. Despite overwhelming student support for the reforms proposed in the referendum, the election is on the verge of collapse due to the refusal of the Undergraduate Council officers to take basic precautions against fraud. Dean Jewett, when we met with the Committee on College Life back in April, I requested that the College step in and run the next vote. You replied that it would be a sad day for Harvard when the student government could not be trusted to run a referendum. I submit that today is that sad day. And if the council's new move to prevent referenda from ever arising again is allowed to stand, this embarrassing condition will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

I would like to meet with you to discuss these issues at your earliest convenience. I will be in contact with your assistant.

Sincerely

Anjalee C. Davis '96