PUCC's Reform Try Misbegotten

Forgive us, but whenever the monthly cry of 'reform' strikes the Undergraduate Council, we have to be a little bit skeptical. Past attempts to define and remedy the essential problems of the council all seem to meld in our minds into the same amorphous blob, long on talk and short on action. We sincerely hope that the new day trumpeted by the Progressive Undergraduate Council Coalition (PUCC) actually sees fruition. Until then, it has the awful burden of reform's history to overcome.

We've said this before, but we'll say it again. The real problem of the Undergraduate Council is a lack of mandate, a lack of a meaningful institutionalized role and a resulting lack of legitimacy in the eyes of both students and the administration.

The council simply does not have any real power on campus, aside from the power to stage Gala Balls with our money. It is a glorified, over-funded dance committee that seems to attract a disproportionate share of campus scandal and bombast. If we're at all interested in reforming the council, then we should start by working hard to gain the confidence of its main constituents--the students--by building on a series of small and ever-larger successes.

By putting the council's energy into its core strengths, like the various student shuttle services, and by conveying student opinion clearly--instead of, as is more often the case, the council's independent opinion--the council might begin to be seen as a body that is capable of competently handling small tasks. With a record of being able to do these small things with efficiency and enthusiasm, the council might then actively attempt to enlarge its role in student affairs, by appealing to the administration for voting positions on relevant committees and binding decision-making power over some areas of student affairs.

This is how real reform in the Undergraduate Council ought to take place: Build a base of support, then leverage that base of support to gain more power. But power is granted only to an organization that is credible and representative. The sad fact is that our student government is neither. Real reform would make it so.

Which brings us to PUCC, council reform's latest incarnation. We applaud PUCC's stated goal of expanding the diversity of the council. We applaud the PUCC's advocacy of greater action, its rhetoric of making the council a center of student activism. But in its nominal attempt at real reform, it undermines one of its own goals and bites off a bit more than it can chew at this point in its young and foolish life.

PUCC's membership has a definite slant. It was formed a group of campus liberals, largely editors of Perspective, and has sought to expand by actively targeting members of various minority groups: PUCC is wooing the Asian American Association, RAZA, the Southeast Asian Association, the Black Students' Association, and the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Student Association. Introducing this element of partisan politicization to the council, where members should instead have a common interest in the non-partisan affairs of students, only divides an already fractionalized council along new lines of cleavage.

This is not the way to form consensus. As the president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Alliance Amanda P. Williams '96 rightly pointed out, conservative groups are bound to react to the PUCC with suspicion and unproductive opposition. She states, "I can imagine how difficult it's going to be for my group, for instance, when we're applying for council money and this group [PUCC] is in place." So can we, Amanda. So can we. In fact, we can hear the shrill cries of debate and bickering that the PUCC is about to add to council chambers.

As if that weren't enough, PUCC, instead of advocating that the council build on a series of small steps to restore student confidence in the council, instead pushes for ridiculously sweeping powers, such as student input into tenure decisions, labor relations and University divestiture from objectionable companies.

This is a lot of power for an upstart contender of a glorified dance committee. And this is what we've heard again and again from attempts to reform the council: "Greater student power!" That line is getting a bit old, even if it's a bunch of enlightened campus liberals yelling it.

In the end, the PUCC, for all of its well-intentioned rhetoric, does more harm than good in real attempts to reform the council. It is selective in its membership, lumbering and offensive in its approach, and impatient for results. It's just history repeating itself, and it's time to break the cycle.