Embracing What Matters Most

The Undergraduate Council has taken its share of punches over the years. We have been called useless, incompetent and removed from the concerns of students. Many undergraduates have no idea who their council representatives are or what exactly the council does every Sunday night at 7 p.m. The average students' only contact with the council is during a quick bite of a fly-by lunch on a weekday afternoon, although some students are probably even unaware that fly-by was the accomplishment of a council member.

It is time for a change. Our goal is to open the Undergraduate Council and to spend the next year addressing the major concerns of the student body.

No, we don't expect to perform miracles, but we do expect to see the council become a dynamic, representative body students can look to as the forum for their complaints about Harvard life and their ideas about how to make it better. We want to hear what student groups need--from a new photocopier to a student center. We want to hear if students think randomization needs to be overhauled or if the Coop is ridiculously overpriced.

We have several priorities this year, in addition to the numerous other issues students suggest. The first is a broad randomization review. We are working right now with Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 to construct a survey to determine what parts of student life have been neglected by randomization. Randomization seems to be one of the most contested issues on this campus--there are those who argue it has improved house life while others argue it has merely reinforced the segregation it originally sought to break down.

The consequences of randomization must be dealt with adequately. If students are going to be randomly assigned housing, then every student should have equal access to equal facilities, both in the physical plant and the tutorial staff. Universal keycard access and a cluster system of sharing house facilities--such as athletic and artistic space--should be the first steps in solving this problem.

The campus has seen a shift from house life to increased participation in student groups--yet why are student groups still operating on incredibly small budgets in basement offices? We constantly hear about the large number of student groups on campus, yet very little has been mentioned about more student group funding or the lack of space. We plan to seek more funding for student groups and continue the dialogue that has already begun about the erection of a student center.

Improving University Health Services (UHS) is another issue we plan to address. By consulting with UHS on the undergraduate survey to be conducted this spring, we will make sure UHS realizes students want to be treated as soon as possible by a doctor. Students need to know they can file complaints with the patient advocate and the Student Health Advisory Committee, so UHS can improve its service. The student body needs more confidence in their health care system.

The issue of advising and counseling will be quite large this year, particularly because the administration is already beginning to examine the flaws and strengths of the advising system. As juniors, we have both witnessed, first hand, the system's failings. Many first-years feel their proctors--whose interests lie in different directions from their students--are too removed from their own experiences.

Advising across the concentrations varies widely. Many undergraduates claim to have never met their advisor while others lunch with their advisor in the faculty club every two weeks. Creative solutions must be applied to the advising system.

Especially in large concentrations, where a pool of graduate students work as advisors, students should be able to pick their own advisor. In many cases, a student will feel more comfortable with someone other than their own advisor to discuss curricular or personal concerns.

Advising in the houses must also be strengthened. There should be a cross-house tutor evaluation at the end of the year. A standard of non-academic house advising should be enforced. We would like to see tutors hold bi-monthly study breaks as a means of informal advising.

Finally, we'll continue the work of the Committee on Undergraduate Education to cap concentration requirements. It is simply not right for there to be a move toward fewer requirements on one hand and a loss of the science core bypasses on the other. Students should have more choice, not less, in what they take.

Above all, our agenda is the agenda of the student body. We want to hear what students are thinking and how the council can aid them in their specific endeavors. That means we're willing to see the council take on any issue any student deems important.

We also believe the council should serve as a means of support for student groups. It is student groups who make Harvard the vibrant institution that it is and the role of the Undergraduate Council is to endorse the work of those groups. We look forward to a year of interaction with students, a fantastic Springfest and an effective and representative council which will ultimately make undergraduate life a little "happier."

Kamil E. Redmond '00, a history and literature and women studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House, is Vice President of the council. Noah Z. Seton '00, a government concentrator in Kirkland House, is President of the council.