PREVIEW '99

Where has all the activism gone?

Led by the apolitical Undergraduate Council of former president Beth A. Stewart '00, last year Harvard students focused their attention on issues affecting their daily lives--frozen yogurt, shuttle schedule, common-room cable. It is a trend that many say will continue this spring.

Current council vice president Kamil E. Redmond '00, who ran on a student-services oriented platform, says she and council President Noah Z. Seton '00 will focus on promoting the need for a student center, increasing student group funding and improving relations between students and administrators.

When asked if she could foresee any political controversies, she quips, "Unless I can create one, no."

And other groups are riding the same depoliticized wave.

Both Monica M. Ramirez '01, president of RAZA, a group for Mexican-American/Latino students, and Michael A. Kay '01 chair of Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel, say they will focus on working more with other groups on campus.

We want to work with other Latino groups in sponsoring dances, speakers and panel discussions," Ramirez says.

"We are working on publicity and the image of Hillel, on how to appeal to (Jewish students) of all types of practice," Kay says.

So it seems as if the burden of political action has fallen on the shoulders of groups like the Institute of Politics (IOP) and the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA).

Byron J. McLain '00, chair of the IOP's student advisory committee, says he wants students see his group as a way to stay involved in politics.

And PBHA President Joseph M. Garland '00 wants undergraduates to look past their own needs and focus on others.'

"I would hope that students would be motivated by injustice, both in the communities of the greater Boston area and on our own college campus," Garland writes in an e-mail message.

But even traditionally activist students like Michael K.T. Tan '01 who is co-chair of the student advisory council to the Harvard Foundation for Race and Intercultural Relations and secretary of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance, doubt that much will rile Harvard's 250-plus student groups this term.

"I totally feel like we're stuck in this `let's pretend we can be apolitical' moment of Harvard history," Tan wrote in an e-mail message.