A Tribe Called Council

Two weeks ago in this space, I supported incumbent Robert M. Hyman '98-'97 for president of the Undergraduate Council. And I'm still very happy he won the next day, having distributed copies of this column to council members just before the vote. I supported him as the advocate of projects that the council should be associated with: projects, like the petition for Core bypasses, which directly affect students; on which there is a large consensus among students; and which have real potential for council-sponsored action instead of grand pontification.

The latest meeting of the council is a grab bag of potential projects, some which continue along the hard-tread path to relevance, and others which threaten to derail the council's highly promising new term. First, Tufts-envy has struck the council once again. In passing a resolution--by a margin of more than 3-to-1--to spend a ridiculous $15,000 on a concert, the council's eyes seem to be glazed over and star-struck by the possibility of hosting the rock band A Tribe Called Quest. (I've never heard of them.) Doesn't the council remember the aborted attempt and ensuing scandal of hosting the band Live in concert last year?

Rudd W. Coffey '97, a "council veteran," claims that this new concert is "the next step in building our credibility.... We don't have many things that bring 2,000 students together. This will provide a sense of community." If we assume that Coffey is sincere, and not merely throwing around buzzwords, then he has a distorted sense of what "credibility" and "community" mean. The proposition that $15,000 of our money--money given to the council by Dining Services to use on undergraduates' behalf--should be used to provide a circus is a severe misjudgment of strategies to make the council more credible and more effective.

The provision of a limited and fleeting public good like a free concert is in no way reflective of this organization's "credibility." The fact that it can throw money at people to put on a show says nothing for the council's effectiveness of representation, its broadening influence with administrators or its command of students' respect. These are the elements of "credibility."

If the concert goes ahead as planned, and if the optimistically-predicted 2,000 students attend, they will spend three hours together hardly able to hear one another speak. They will yell and scream and dance and sing--it'll be a great concert, if the council doesn't somehow botch it, but that's all it will be. Students won't leave the concert feeling any more part of a college community than when it started. For that to happen, we might suggest a group "Kumbaya" sing-along in Sanders. But that wouldn't cost $15,000 of our money now, would it?

If we're into circuses this month, the ones proposed as Skate Night and Casino Night seem to be much more appropriate uses of the council's resources. These smaller deals involve more community interaction, more hands-on management (and thus opportunities to build confidence in the council's ability to organize and implement) and far less money. With regard to community- and credibility-building, spending an afternoon learning to skate, or an evening playing blackjack for charity, would accomplish everything that a concert could, and more.

Why isn't the council spending enormous sums on longer-lasting and more inclusive projects, like funding a student lobby for Core bypasses, or increasing student grants (not being so stingy with funds), or simply saving the money in a fund for later use? Or what about more Crimson Cash for undergraduates? That's a perfectly non-excludable public good that might be provided to everyone.

The council also debated a constitutional amendment that would revise the constitution to be gender-neutral and give the secretary the power to gender-neutralize any future legislation. I say enough of these mega-circuses and petty debates over hims and hers; let's get down to the business for which the council was elected--advocating students' immediate concerns as best as its jurisdiction allows.

Patrick S. Chung's column appears on alternate Saturdays.