Everybody's a Critic

As a first-year member on the Undergraduate Council, John A. Burton '01 often took attendance at the council's meetings, using the chance to check off members at the door as a way to learn their names and make connections.

But when Burton takes the roll at council meetings this semester--two months into his term as vice president--his calls for silence are often met by rolled eyes and snickers, and his every misstep is carefully documented by council opponents.

At the council's April 9 meeting, for example, a group of members challenged Burton for sloppy record-keeping.

The council postponed its business for more than 30 minutes to debate allowing C. Jonathan Gattman '03--a member who Burton had expelled that night for missed meetings--to vote at that meeting.

The group claimed Burton had given Gattman inadequate notice that he was in jeopardy of expulsion. And by a narrow margin in a formal roll-call vote, the council rebuffed Burton and decided to let the ex-member vote.

Still, that council members challenge Burton over attendance issues is not unprecedented--complaints about the attendance-taking skills of council vice presidents have long been part of group politics.

Former Vice President Kamil E. Redmond '00 did a poor job keeping the council's attendance, says council Secretary Sterling P.A. Darling '01.

But Darling says her good standing with the entire council meant few people made an issue out of her negligence.

"No one would have called Kamil on that," Darling says. "The popularity of an officer can let you get away with a lot." Others agree.

"VP's have routinely done a bad job of attendance," writes Todd E. Plants '01. "The only real difference is that there are a bunch of people that actively dislike John, so they point it out."

Two months after the council voted to impeach Burton for alleged campaign violations, Burton continues to struggle to win the respect of the council--even while some of his most vocal critics admit he is doing a competent job.

"He's doing better now," Darling offers. "[But] I don't think he's earned back respect at all."

Catch-22

The job of vice president, as described in the council's constitution, is very limited: Burton's direct responsibilities include taking attendance and keeping the council's office clean.

Like many vice presidents before him, Burton is faced with the challenge of how to expand this role. But unlike former second-in-commands, Burton has been forced to negotiate a more delicate course in the wake of his February impeachment.

In its immediate aftermath, Burton and council President Fentrice D. Driskell '01 both acknowledged that they would have to deal with what many saw as a no-confidence vote in the newly elected vice president.

If Burton kept within his constitutionally-imposed boundaries and limited his involvement in controversial council issues, members might see this as a validation of impeachment--that Burton was bound to be an ineffectual vice president.

But if he tried to do too much too soon, council members might think he was being presumptuous. After all, a majority--but not the required two-thirds--of the council had voted to remove him from office.

In particular, Burton was going to have to stick close to Driskell--who is almost universally liked and respected on council, many members say.

Driskell says that for the most part, Burton has walked this fine line fairly well, though she admits Burton's frankness and sharp humor have gotten him in trouble at times.

"I think John's done a good job," she says. "John's never afraid to speak his own mind."

Turning to Burton and laughing, Driskell says there are times when his off-the-cuff remarks would be better left unsaid.

"Sometimes you say something and I want to take it back for you," she jokes.

But Driskell remains fiercely loyal to her vice president, just as she was during the impeachment crisis.

When, at the council's April 9 meeting, Burton made a joke about recruiting liberal students to run in special elections to balance a new member who is part of the Republican Club, a handful of more conservative council members shouted taunts from their seats.

Driskell wouldn't stand for it.

"If you take issue with [Burton's] remarks, take it up with him!" she scolded the council. "You can turn this into an animal house if you want, but I don't think so."

This reputation as something of a "joker," Darling says, may have made Burton's transition to a position of authority on the council more difficult.

But Burton, in his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, says he thinks other factors may have impeded his move to establish the respect of the council.

"The transition into the vice presidency probably would have been easier if some people had not tried to impeach me," Burton writes in an e-mail message.

The Burton Agenda

A small group of those council members most involved in orchestrating Burton's impeachment seem committed to making sure he doesn't forget it.

When Burton announced the expulsion of Gattman in the April 9 meeting, it was Darling who questioned the vice president about his attendance-keeping, and Finance Committee Chair John P. Marshall '01 made the motion to allow Gattman to vote.

Gattman, Darling and Marshall were also three of the 10 sponsors of the petition to impeach Burton.

Burton says he doesn't worry about what his opponents think.

"I'm sure they all care about the council deeply," he says. "I don't have the time or desire to argue with them."

Driskell agrees with this approach.

"The best thing that John can do is to stay at the top of his game," she says.

And Burton contends that he has done just that. He claims to have formalized and tightened the system of recording absences from council meetings.

Even Darling acknowledges that Burton has been busy with other projects.

He has met with administrators, handled student complaints about shuttle schedules, set up work groups at the start of the semester, run special elections that have seated almost 30 new members and contacted officials to ensure there will be recycling bins in the Yard next year.

Most visibly, in accord with his and Driskell's campaign platform, he has sponsored legislation to put feedback cards in dining halls and to administer a campus-wide questionnaire--Harvard Census 2000. The council voted to approve both bills.

Still, Darling says he wonders why the feedback cards--something that "seems like a pretty easy thing to do"--have not yet appeared in dining halls.

Burton says they're ready to be picked up from Kinko's.

Then there is Burton's work as a non-voting member of the Constitutional Committee, which has investigated possible changes to the council's constitution and bylaws over the last several weeks.

Burton, by all accounts, has been an active and vocal member of the committee, leading the charge to carve out a better-defined role for the council's vice president, a goal that many members agree with.

"It seems like the push is to assign some specific responsibilities to the vice president to enhance his coordinating role," Darling says. He would like to see the officeholder become someone who "collects information and then is in a position to use it."

One proposal, which Burton favors, is to put the vice president in charge of monitoring council task forces that currently are not accountable to specific officers.

But while a majority of committee hopes that the constitution will be changed to expand the vice president's role, some members are less than enthusiastic about entrusting new responsibilities to Burton.

"I think that although the role could

definitely be expanded, the council may hesitate to do so when the current VP can't even fulfill the duties the office already has," he writes in an e-mail message.

Criticism and Persecution

Despite the his opponents' criticism and the possibility of constitutional change, Burton says he does not expect much change in the council's dynamics.

Burton says he has made peace with the fact that he will always have to deal with council members who voted to impeach him and remove him from the council on Feb. 14.

And he says he's not going to make any special efforts to change his personal style.

"I have tried to be really patient and I will continue to be, though it is also true that my sense of humor and 'flippant' demeanor may at times offend them," Burton writes in an e-mail message. "As Rodney King should have said: 'Can't we all just relax a little bit?'"

Darling, for one, seems to have accepted Burton's somewhat unconventional style.

"Some of his comments are kind of off-the-cuff, but that's just his personality," Darling says.

More than anything, Burton says he just wants to be left alone.

"There's constructive criticism and there's persecution," he says. "I've gotten a lot of both this semester as vice president but I still don't understand why everyone is trying to make me famous."