Anene Urges Diversity on Council

While passing out orange fliers in front of the Science Center last week, Undergraduate Council vice presidential candidate Kyle A. De Beausset ’08-’09, who also sports orange hair, explained the color’s significance.

Orange is a “good-luck color” from childhood that has come to symbolize gratitude, he says.

De Beausset and running mate, UC presidential candidate Amadi P. Anene ’08, are running on a campaign to shake up the UC through their dedication to activism and idealism.

In his campaign garb, De Beausset explains that his color choice was no simple decision.

“Buddhist monks wear orange. Orange is very important in Hinduism,” he says. “I love the color of the sunset...It just epitomizes being thankful.”

“That’s what he says when he wants to get girls,” Anene adds jokingly.

‘DEMAND A CHANGE’

Anene and De Beausset have both worked to bring about reform while at Harvard.

Though their campaign slogan reads “Demand a Change,” the two have often taken different approaches in instituting reform.

Anene, an Eliot resident who says he was an “all-American kid” in high school, was elected to the UC his freshman year.

Hoping to finally extend dining hall hours, he spearheaded a phone survey of “hundreds of freshmen,” wrote a 20-page position paper about the issue, and met with administrators.

Two years later dining hall hours still haven’t budged—but Anene says the experience gave him “a better feel for how the University actually deals with things.”

During a stint as vice chair for College life on the UC’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC), Anene helped campaign for a women’s center and advise on changes to the Hilles building.

Most recently, Anene has focused his efforts on implementing the Course-Cost Assistance Program (C-CAP), which would grant stipends to low-income students for their course books.

This project has united the UC veteran with running mate De Beausset, an outsider who has worked on projects beyond Harvard’s gates.

He helped found Students Taking on Poverty (STOP) last year, organizing a voter registration drive and a trip to New Orleans last spring break to assist in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

As a member of Harvard’s Black Men’s Forum, De Beausset, who is not of African-American descent, has also tackled minority issues.

“What Kyle brings to the table is really sort of the direction that I want the UC to move in,” Anene says, calling De Beausset’s activist approach “less bureaucratic.”

De Beausset, who is also a Crimson editorial editor, spent last year in Guatemala after Hurricane Stan ravaged his home country. During his time off, he started a project to aid Guatemalans farming shrimp and embarked on a journey mirroring that taken by migrant workers from Guatemala.

On the campaign trail De Beausset appears soft-spoken and humble, quicker to play up Anene’s accomplishments than his own.

CULTURE OF COLLABORATION

The two running mates interacted long before they sought to tackle textbook costs through the UC. The Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrators participated in the First-Year Urban Program, lived in Matthews Hall, and rowed (and quit) freshman crew.

Their current joint effort, their UC campaign, calls for a “culture of collaboration,” strengthening ties within the College, and forming new bonds between the Harvard community and the world beyond the gates.

An “extra-curricular review” that would parallel Harvard’s own Curricular Review tops their priority list. The pair say the review, led by a student-faculty committee, would produce reports on how student groups could better work together.

Other platform issues include mobilizing students around the issues of faculty diversity and increasing environmental awareness on campus.

A MODEST CAMPAIGN

Anene and De Beausset say their relatively simple campaign has been free of gimmicks.

“We started a bit later and we didn’t plan all this out several months in advance like many of our competitors,” Anene says.

Moreover, the ticket unofficially withdrew from the race on Nov. 19 via e-mail, with Anene citing “family complexities.” But the candidates reentered the race soon after.

Anene and De Beausset say their campaign is more about the ideas guiding their vision for the College and less about flashy signs.

“For some [UC] presidents, the most impressive thing they accomplish is their campaign,” Anene says.

“We ask you to look beyond our campaign,” De Beausset urged the audience at the UC candidate debate last week.

“We ask you to look at who we are as people and our ideals.”