The students "said they want the council topromote divestiture in any way that they can,"Offutt said, "I would shy away from [a moregeneral interpretation]".
The student vote in favor of the referendum'ssecond question "says something about whatstudents think the role of the council should bein the community," said council member Melissa S.Lane '88
However, because only 45 percent of the studentbody voted council member Steven A. Colarossi '86said that the results would probably have noimpact on the University stand on divestment.
Representative Andrew J. Sussman '88 said thathe is "infuriated" that both referendum questionspassed. "I think the referendum undermines thecredibility of the council in the long term," hesaid, "It adds to the feeling of the students thatthe Undergraduate Council doesn't do anything."
A Political Question
Whether the council should support divestmentbecame a heated issue in the council earlier thisyear when council chairman Offutt advocated anon-political stance toward the issue.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, members of theEndowment for Divestiture, an alternative to theclass gift fund held in escrow until theUniversity divests, threatened to oust Offut fromthe endowment presidency. Offutt, endowmenttrustees said, was not being energetic enough insoliciting funds.
Some council members charged that Offutt wasapolitical, and the referendum might be used toresolve the intra-council rift between"apolitical" and "political" representatives byasking students to decide whether the councilshould take political stands.
Several council members, including Lane, acandidate for the chairmanship of the council,collected more than 700 signatures last month in apetition calling for the referendum.
Representative Steven A. Nussbaum '86, who saidthat he was "overjoyed" at the result of thereferendum, said that he did not believe that theresults of the referendum would have an immediateor linear impact on tomorrow's election forcouncil officers. "I don't think that the electionresults [will] necessarily correlate one-to-one toreferendum results," he said.
General Elections
Council members finished counting ballots ofanother kind last night as they tabulated theresults of general elections for nine councilseats vacant after the fall semester.
Twenty-five students ran for the nine seats.
Michael J. La Cascia '86, Andrew W. Mclntyre'85-'86, and Amanda L. Scanlan '87 were elected asrepresentatives from Dudley House. Six studentsvied for the three seats that were left open afterDudley representatives Andrew J. Sussman '87 andMark D. Nielson '86 moved to River Houses. Thethird representative, Brian P. Golden '87,resigned to run for Massachusetts StateRepresentative.
Dinah S. Leventhal '88 and Brian W. McCarthy'88 were elected from North House. The duo waschosen from among the four contestants for the twoseats vacated following the resignation ofChristopher E. Roy '86 and Austin W. Moore '87.
Defeating three other candidates, Jill I. Brown'87 became a Cabot House representative. SuzanneD. Howell '87 vacated the seat when she took asemester off.
Guy B. Wallace '88 won the Leverett House seat,vacated by Patrick A. Rivelli Jr. '85-'86, who wasexpelled from the council for non-attendance. Fourstudents vied for the position.
Winning the Mather House seat was RobertWeissman '88. Only two candidates ran for the seatleft empty when representative Kira R. Diaz '86resigned.
Siddhartha Mitter '89 was elected to theSoutheast Yard seat from which Theodore J. F.Lubke '89 resigned. Five freshmen vied for thecouncil position.
Representatives are usually elected in the fallfor one-year council terms, but every yearelections are held at the beginning of the secondsemester when a few council members announce thatthey will not serve a second term