Campaign Season Pumps Up UC Presidential Candidates

It has begun.

At the stroke of midnight yesterday morning, candidates for the presidency and vice presidency of the Undergraduate Council officially began their feverish pitches for office. The posters--and the endorsements--are already flying.

Several candidates, noting an expectation of high voter turnout among first-years, say they hope to visit every single dorm in the Yard.

Others will take a more lighthearted approach.

Two years ago, Michael J. Bush '99 greeted constituents from atop a throne of beer cans in front of the science center. He finished third in the race overall.

This year, Benjamin Dreyfus '01 is running on a jingoistic platform, hoping to convince Mass. Hall to declare war on an unspecified small nation.

Endorsements are already starting to trickle in--former council President Beth A. Stewart '00 announced she will endorse council treasurer Sterling P. A. Darling '01 and is working on his campaign--and the trickle will likely become a flood as other campus figures and student groups decide which candidate they support.

Council candidates, like their counterparts on a national scale, will argue this year's issues--which will likely include the proposed termbill increase, the proposed downsizing of the council and the need for council reform--at an Institute of Politics debate sometime next week.

In two weeks, a little less than half the campus will vote, the winner will be announced, and the flurry of activity will come to a close.

And for one brief and brilliant moment, the council will be, if nothing else, at the center of the public eye.

The Vision Thing

With the exception of the President and Vice President, most students on campus remain largely oblivious of their individual elected representatives' politics and proposals.

Meanwhile, five presidential and four vice presidential candidates are now jostling for the spotlight, drafting position papers, preparing for debates and opening themselves to public scrutiny.

"It's a lot harder to woo a [random] undergrad than 80 council members who are there all the time," Stewart said.

For the council, this is one of the few opportunities to put a face to its proceedings. Students will meet progressive council members, long-time council insiders and freshly minted council representatives, all vying to become the next council president.

"People get excited about the UC [during the campaign]," says current council President Noah Z. Seton '00. "People take interest in it, and the voter turnout is high."

This annual ritual is about more than just identifying next year's council leaders because it forces candidates to come up with a vision for the future of the council.

"I think that, in a lot of ways, the UC is a very formal institution," says Stewart. "There's not much down time to sit and reflect about what the future of the council and the campus should be."

The campaign is just such an opportunity. Candidates, if they want to win, will have to tell voters how they will make their mark on campus, and they have to sell their goals to the student body.

"It's a good opportunity to put competing visions of the UC in the marketplace and allow the council to do some reflection about where it's been and where it's going," says Stewart.

Unfortunately, in a very real sense, the presidential election is the only election that a council member will have to fight for in his or her time at Harvard.

While council members ostensibly run for their seats on the council, in some districts--such as Dunster House this year--there are more available seats than there are candidates willing to fill them, and so the election to the council itself becomes little more than a formality.

As a result, the council has been facing questions of legitimacy in recent years. If council members do not truly compete for office, but instead merely sign up for it, how can they claim to represent the campus?

The Importance of Experience

The issue of council reform will likely prove to be a hot-button topic in this year's election.

All the presidential candidates except for Todd E. Plants '01 support a move to downsize the council, in an effort to make elections for its seats more competitive.

In addition, because the next president will answer to an electorate largely disenchanted with council politics, council experience may prove to be a double-edged sword in the upcoming election.

Darling is the prototypical council insider. He is currently the council's treasurer, has been a representative since he was a first-year, and has the support of the council's conservative leadership.

"I'm a supporter of Sterling's, but I'm not going to make an official endorsement yet," says Seton.

Darling, on his part, is hedging that his experience on the council will pay off in the election.

"Only someone who knows the current status of the Council and the College can effectively work to make the changes that everyone believes are so important," he wrote in an e-mail message.

But Frank X. Leonard '01, the other conservative presidential candidate, is taking the opposite tactic. Both he and his vice presidential candidate Katie Tenney '01 have been on the council for only one semester, and neither has sponsored a piece of council legislation. Leonard says he thinks his recent arrival on the council will play well to undergraduates.

"I bring an outside perspective to the UC," he says. "I'm a first time member, so I still remember the gripes of students about UC."

Hugh P. Liebert '01, publisher of The Salient and a Crimson columnist, says he is one of several conservatives who have jumped ship from Darling to Leonard.

"Sterling is so much the heir apparent, that to a lot of conservatives, Frank is fresh," says Liebert. "Sterling doesn't have the same pull that Frank does."