Former Undergraduate Council Leaders Talk Tenure, Future of UC

With their tenure as Undergraduate Council leaders officially over, former UC President Catherine L. Zhang ’19 and former UC Vice President Nicholas D. Boucher ’19 spoke of the frustrations and successes of their time in office in an interview Thursday.

The duo said they believe they fulfilled most of their 39 campaign promises. And those the Council could not accomplish, Zhang and Boucher said, could be more easily completed in the future because of changes they recently implemented that they hope will improve the long-term viability of the Council.

“We created a new internal database that is going to be used to track institutionally what the UC has done, what’s worked and what hasn’t worked,” Boucher said. “My hope is that this system will help to preserve these ideas...that will help to advance some of these items faster, as far as long-term projects go.”

Zhang said her proudest accomplishment as president was helping to convince the College to establish an educational studies secondary field.

“I think it’s such a long-term institutional-type change at the College and will help shape the narrative for future students,” she said.

Boucher cited the menstrual-hygiene product campaign as the Council's most impactful initiative, calling it a “big deal” for students.

In the wake of a Council presidential election that saw a 35 percent higher turnout than the year prior, Boucher said he feels students’ engagement with the Council has increased throughout the duo’s tenure, largely due to better communication about the UC’s objectives and accomplishments — part of a March promise.

Videos the Council has posted on Facebook, including a weekly series called UC-SPAN, have at garnered over a thousand views on Facebook.

“Even if students don’t read through every email and even if students don’t watch every episode of UC-SPAN or even haven’t seen a single episode, I think they’re still beneficial because it shows communication on behalf of the UC,” Boucher said. “In my personal opinion, the largest amount of discontent is primarily about communication issues more so than systematic issues.”

Still, the pair acknowledged more work remained to be done in engaging with the student body. In nearly every election between 2004 and 2010, over 3,500 students voted. Since then, turnout has surpassed that figure only once.

Zhang and Boucher also tried to push back against criticism from some UC members about what members feel is a disproportionate focus on issuing statements and not enough of a focus on legislation with more tangible impacts on students. In recent months, the Council has weighed in on the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the merits of shopping week, the controversial firing of former HUHS employee Mayli Shing, and the lawsuit against Harvard’s admissions practices.

“I will say that with every statement we’ve put out, there has been at least one or more student responses being really thankful,” Zhang said. “And I think that if we are able to reach even just one student, letting them know that we hear them, we’re standing with them, depending on what the statement is, I think there’s something to be said about it.”

Boucher said he continued to prefer “action-oriented legislation” over statement, but nonetheless sees statements as useful in certain instances.

“So long as putting out a statement doesn’t take away from your ability from your ability to do action, I think the statement can be warranted,” he said. “The challenge is to find a way to make sure that every time we're talking about something, we’re actually doing something towards that goal as well.”

— Staff writer Jonah S. Berger can be reached at jonah.berger@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonahberger98.