UC Restores Storage Program for Summer 2022, Allocates Funding for FGLI, Transgender Students

The Harvard Undergraduate Council convened Sunday for its weekly general meeting and passed five pieces of legislation, including plans to renew its summer storage program.

The legislation, sponsored by Lowell House Representative and Social and Residential Life Chair David Y. Zhang ’23 and Pforzheimer House Representative Lisa R. Mathew ’24, plans to restore the Council’s summer storage program with Five Star Movers for 2022, allocating $15,600 in funding. The Council has previously partnered with the company to financially assist students who need to store belongings, accommodating 500 students last year.

The proposal to renew the program comes as the UC faces an internal audit, led by a team from Harvard Risk Management and Audit Services.

“Part of the reason why we're doing this internal audit record right now is because there were some concerns about financial mismanagement, about the storage program that we conducted over the summer,” UC Secretary Jane J. Oh ’24 said.

Zhang said the audit has not found evidence of mismanagement in the program that spanned from May to August 2021. Rather, the concerns stem from an additional program during the last two weeks of the summer geared towards students conducting research on campus at the time, he said.

“That ran starting July just because we didn't realize that Harvard did not provide the research students the two weeks of room that they needed to stay on campus and so they were kicked off and brought back in two weeks,” Zhang said.

After the UC debated several proposed amendments to the bill, Eliot House Representative Ryan P. McCarthy ’24 spoke in defense of legislation, noting he saved several hundred dollars through the storage program.

“I’m the guy who never votes to spend money because, as evidenced, we spend our time twiddling our thumbs doing government cosplay.” McCarthy added. “I support this because it actually helps students.”

The UC also passed three pieces of legislation aimed at providing funds for student organizations.

The first — sponsored by UC Finance Chair Daniella M. Berrospi ’24 — allocates nearly $11,000 in funding for more than 30 clubs. Also backed by Berrospi, the second grants Harvard Primus just under $9,000 to host a black tie formal event “dedicated to highlighting our Harvard's FGLI students.”

Cabot House Representative Brooke L. Livingston ’23 sponsored a piece of legislation that will allocate $3,000 to Queer Students and Allies and the Harvard College Office of BGLTQ Student Life to support transgender students seeking gender-reaffirming clothing and legal name changes.

A fourth piece of legislation, sponsored by Dunster House Representative Samuel H. Taylor ’24 and passed without amendments by the Council, recommended student group COMPBIO to be recognized as a student organization by the Committee on Student Life.

Correction: March 1, 2022

A previous version of this article misquoted Eliot House UC Representative Ryan P. McCarthy ’24. McCarthy said, "I’m the guy who never votes to spend money because, as evidenced, we spend our time twiddling our thumbs doing government cosplay." He did not say, "I’m the guy who never votes to spend money because it's evidence we spend our time twiddling our thumbs doing government cosplay.”

—Staff writer Mert Geyiktepe can be reached at mert.geyiktepe@thecrimson.com.