U.C. May Pick Up Debt From Ivy Council

The Undergraduate Council will vote on Sunday whether to reimburse two students who made out-of-pocket loans to the Ivy Council (IC) in February-and have yet to have their money repaid.

The IC-an umbrella organization for Ivy League student governments-has always taken a few knocks from the Undergraduate Council, which has repeatedly questioned why it should involve itself with the Ivy organization.

The IC has alternately been accused by Harvard council members of being a waste of money and of time, and many of them have been trying to extricate the council from the IC. Currently , the council spends $500 a year on its involvement with the organization.

However, if the council decides to reimburse Robert M. Gee `02 and Trisha S. Dasgupta `01, it will end up spending close to $2,500 on the IC this year.

Gee and Dasgupta organized February's "Ivy Council summit"-a yearly conference for student government leaders, which this year was hosted by Harvard. They charged hotel rooms and food for the guests to their personal credit cards, with the understanding that they would be reimbursed by the IC within a matter of days.

However, two months later, they have yet to see a dime.

Now, the council will vote and decide whether to step in and reimburse Gee and Dasgupta.

"I was told they'd pay me back that day," Gee said. "And I needed the money."

Todd E. Plants `01 the chair of the council's Student Affairs Committee, said the council should assume responsibility for the loan to halt Gee and Dasgupta's growing credit card debt.

"Their work with the Ivy Council is on behalf of us," Plants said. "No one should have to deal with that debt."

But Plants touched on what this bill might mean for Harvard's affiliation with the IC.

"A lot of us have thought the Ivy Council was a waste of time for a while," Plants said. "But now it seems like it's a waste of money, too."

Can I borrow...

At February's Ivy Council summit-held at Harvard-Gee and Dasgupta used their personal bank accounts to finance the IC's activities after one of the group's prospective

Gee used his credit card to pay more than $1,300 in food for the IC representatives, while Dasgupta loaned the IC close to $600 to lodge the summit's guest speakers.

Mo N. Saraiya, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and the immediate past president of the IC, said the IC has very little liquid money and instead relies almost exclusively upon ad-hoc donations to fund its events.

He also said that it is common practice for the Ivy Council to fund its conferences using personal loans from its members when the donations do not come through.

"People generally do pay for them out of pocket," Saraiya said.

Saraiya, who also loaned the IC $700 at the February summit, said that Gee was mistaken if he expected immediate repayment.

"Robert was told the wrong thing if he was under that assumption," Saraiya said, adding that he also had not yet been repaid.

The Last Straw?

Affiliation with the Ivy Council has long been the subject of debate within the council.

In the past, council members have questioned its importance and suggested that Harvard disaffiliate from the IC.

The IC's members are the ones who have fought to maintain its connection with Harvard.

But Gee said the events following his loan caused him to reconsider.

"I was bitter and resigned for a few days," Gee said.

Earlier in the term, the council passed a resolution to review the IC's activities at the end of the year, and if it did not meet a set of guidelines set for it by the council, to disaffiliate.

One of the council's mandates was that the IC better disclose its use of funds. After, this episode, Gee said disaffiliation is probably inevitable.

"According to the bill we passed, I think we're going to pull out," Gee said. "And we should."

--Staff Writer Alexander B. Ginsberg can be reached at ginsberg@fas.harvard.edu