Indications are that incumbent president of the Student Council Howard J. Phillips '62 has an uneasy edge at present over Thomas E. Petri '62, opponent in the race for the Presidency, but that the election-meeting debates tonight will be decisive.

This seems especially true in view of the large proportion of members new to the Council--24 out of 31--who will be particularly influenced by speeches and platforms.

In election-eve statements Petri noted his "dissatisfaction with the standing of the Council in the Harvard community" and with its "decline" during the past year, while Phillips cited the importance of continuity and of the President's "willingness to spend many hours in the Council office" and stressed "responsibility, experience, and honesty."

Phillips also said that "in the last two years the Council has acted in a responsible, honest manner and has attempted to undertake projects of real significance to the student body." He noted the honesty and lack of complication in Council-run elections, the closer relations with the House committees, the "effectiveness" of the Student Council CEP, the "most successful Combined Charities Drive in history," the dining halls poll, and Twentieth Century Week.

Petri, however, cited the fact that only five of the 18 elections to the Council this fall were contested as "a good indication of its reputation" and charged that Phillips had not fulfilled his last year's campaign promises of a report on student parking (which is reaching the "crisis stage"), and of the expansion of the forum series. He also noted that the SCCEP, the committee with the "greatest potential" of any Council committee, held only two or three meetings during all of 1960.

Both called for continuation of Twentieth Century Week, Petri asking for a sounder financial policy, Phillips stating that the difficulties inherent in presenting a project for the first time had been resolved because of the amount learned by those organizing the program.

Petri stated that "we have lost a semester on the drama problem," adding that "we should have been working on it all along."