Students To Join UHS Council

Undergraduates will be included on a collaborative health committee for the first time next year, according to an announcement made at last night’s Undergraduate Council meeting. The measure comes after months of UC advocacy aimed at addressing student mental health on campus.

Two student representatives—one from the UC’s Student Affairs Committee and one from the general student body—will join Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 and University Health Services (UHS) Chief of Mental Health Richard D. Kadison as participants on the UHS-College committee, which UC Representative Benjamin P. Schwartz ’10 described yesterday as “a team environment to come together and pool resources to improve health at Harvard.”

Schwartz credited the UC for acting as a moving force in leading to the new development.

Also announced at yesterday’s meeting was the administration’s endorsement of HarvardHelp.com, a recently established UC Web site listing information for mental health resources on campus. According to Schwartz, Associate Dean for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson has pledged to procure a new URL for the site and make it available through general Harvard listings.

UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 and Vice-President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 both alleged in e-mails to the UC open-list last week that the provost’s office had been slow to meet with them about the possibility of creating a mental health help site.

But contacted for comment last week, University spokesman John D. Longbrake made no reference to any hesitation about the Harvard help site.

“We acknowledge that a need existed for the site and we are delighted by the work of the students, who quickly pulled together the information,” Longbrake wrote in an e-mailed statement. “We will work with the students to integrate and further develop the site.”

Among the docket legislation passed at yesterday’s meeting was a provision to have spring term elections for the chair positions of the UC’s two primary sub-committees moved to an earlier date to allow more time for adjustment. Representatives also voted in favor of a mandate calling for a weekly update on the progress of pending UC projects.

But with the length of the meeting—the UC’s last for the year—nearing two hours, the proceedings were brought to an abrupt end when Financial Committee Chair Alexander N. “Zander” Li ’08 broke the quorum necessary for voting, departing the Harvard Hall conference room where the meeting was held in protest over lagging debate on the UC floor.

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.