While some chairman double as council representatives, other chairman say they have no desire to be on the council. And while involvement in House Committee activities is a good way to gain the House-wide prominence necessary for council election, some students are content to stay where they are, citing the greater time commitment and bureaucratic tendencies of the council as reasons for their decision to "stay local."

"They're two different things," says Dunster House Committee Co-Chairman Ari Epstein '84. "The House Committee has the camaraderie which the Undergraduate Council does not have and on a small House Committee you're really appreciated."

Higher visibility and loyalty to the House are another drawing card for involvement in House activities. Several House Committee chairmen who are seniors say they have been going to meetings since sophomore year and continued because they thought what they were doing could have an effect on the House.

Epstein cites concerns about House unity and image in a House "overly committed to academics." DiNunzio recalls going to House Committee meetings in the fall of his sophomore year. He stayed on, he says, because he saw his class as "the last of the old guard," and wanted the old guard to have an influence on the House.

But despite the overlapping aims of the council and the House Committee, most say the two are not redundant, and add that the House Committees will not fold under the high visibility of the council.

"The center of gravity in undergraduate life is the Houses," says Epps, who oversaw the planning and the implementation of the Undergraduate Council. Epps adds that it was the House Committees that in the 1960s moved for the series of College-wide governments of which the most recent is the council.

But Epps says. "In this government there is a deemphasis of the House Committee, and this may be a weakness."

Yet Epps adds that he believes in the staying power of the committees, despite lacks of formal links with the council. First, the committees half-century of history and high level of student interest make him optimistic. "It is my personal view, "he says, "that should the students lose interest in the Undergraduate Council, serious consideration should be given to forming a student government based on the House Committees."

'The House Committee has the camaraderie which the undergraduate council does not have and on a small committee you're really appreciated.'