Winthrop Council Candidates Feud

The Winthrop House election to fill two vacant seats in the Undergraduate Council turned nasty Monday, as the house open e-mail list was flooded with negative campaigning and electronic mud-slinging.

The fracas began when Thomas N. Saunders ’02 wrote to Throptalk on behalf of council candidate Ariel Z. Weisbard ’02. In his e-mail, Saunders singled out candidate Thomas J. Mucha ’03 for criticism.

“Tom Mucha is a tool of evil corporations,” Saunders wrote, “By all means, vote for anyone but Tom Mucha.”

The ensuing e-mail debate focused mostly on the role of the council on campus.

Saunders claimed Mucha should not be elected because he does not support the living wage campaign. He also alluded to Mucha’s alleged support for reinstating ROTC at Harvard as a reason to oppose Mucha’s candidacy.

Mucha’s roommate Alan B. Lenarcic ’03 replied to Saunders’ e-mail, calling Saunders a “tool” and urging Winthrop to vote for Mucha because of his commitment to student living concerns.

“I think Democrats and Republicans and even extremists like the “vote for Bob” party can all agree that getting the B-5 dryer fixed in Standish was about time,” wrote Lenarcic. “It’s about initiative. It’s about calling three or five administrators to figure out who forgot to send the repairman.”

Weisbard, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) who was involved in last spring’s sit-in, subsequently e-mailed Throptalk a sarcastic message. In the e-mail, he mocked Mucha and the council’s current commitments to student services.

“I think the UC should focus on its true purpose: the procurement of vastly larger quantities of frozen yogurt,” Weisbard wrote.

As for Mucha, Weisbard mockingly pointed to the two candidates’ political differences.

“I simply cannot fathom what leads him to be in favor of a functional dryer in Standish,” he wrote.

Mucha has not responded to the e-mails and said he will not reply to the personal attacks made against him.

“I’m not in the minority in saying that the goal of the UC is to improve student life,” Mucha said in an interview yesterday, “[The UC is] not a policy advocacy group; it’s a student advocacy group.”

Mucha also pointed to the council’s limitations and emphasized that the council should stay focused on student services.

“The UC is more like a high school student council. It’s not the Roman Senate,” he said. “Things like laundry machines and Springfest are what the UC should do.”

The other three council candidates running from Winthrop have avoided the fray altogether.

Candidate David K. Kessler ’04 said he thought Throptalk was an inappropriate forum for making disparaging remarks about council candidates.

Blake J. Boulerice ’04, who serves as the Winthrop House delegation chair to the council, said he was concerned about the personal attacks posted over Throptalk and emphasized that council’s focus on student services should remain a priority.

“It’s dangerous otherwise. We have to be able to deal with Harvard policy that directly affects us,” he said.