The Harvard Young Republicans at a raucous and heated meeting last night overwhelmingly elected officers who vowed to make the club an on-campus alternate to SDS.
Jay B. Stephens '68, who received 92 of 154 total votes in his race against Irwin Gaines '68, said that the "pluralistic" Harvard community needs an alternative voice to SDS, and that under his leadership the Young Republican Club would fill that need.
The club, he said, will take stands on large and small questions of foreign policy, although he said he did not expect YR's would resort to demonstrations.
Stephens aired his own views against U.S. policy in Vietnam as a member of the student-faculty panel which questioned U.N. Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg last Sunday.
Charles Untermeyer '68, Stephens's running mate, was elected vice-president. Paul Wagler '70, a member of Gaines's ticket, was elected operations director of the club.
Gaines, after being defeated in the presidential bid, was elected program director, the number four position on the executive board. He held the same office last year.
The election meeting was interrupted at several points by a group of students who sought to have constitutional amendments considered. The proposed amendments did not receive action.
New Election Rule
The chief amendment would allow one third of the club members to call a new election meeting at any time.
"The idea was a way of keeping a flame under the behinds of the executive committee," William Beyer '67, said.
The candidates nominated by Beyer's group gave mock speeches ridiculing the past record of the Young Republicans.
John MacKesy '67, this group's presidential candidate, polled nearly 10 per cent of the vote.
"SDS will get their come-uppins," MacKesy shouted, and called for an "embargo of the U.N. and recognition of Rhodesian Independence."
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