Absentee Voices

Despite all the fuss this fall about students giving input to Harvard's governing boards, there is one group of trustees on campus, Radcliffe's, which permits students to listen in and contribute to debate. Although the three representatives from the Radcliffe Union of Students can't vote, they certainly can make their cases heard--when they want to, that is.

At last week's meeting on divestment policy, only one of the three student reps--Gina Cattalini '87--showed up to contribute to Radcliffe's divestment dialogue. The other two, Dahlia Weinman '87 and Ann Geiger '87 didn't. Seems one had an exam and the other was ill.

RUS has sent delegates to the board since the group's founding about 20 years ago. Cattalini says she believes RUS' greatest function is in "helping [the trustees] know what students are thinking about."

The Classy Professor

Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Administration Richard E. Neustadt has a distaste for the phrase, "I'm only a freshman." Just ask Thomas S. Rubin '90, who described himself in those very words to the venerable professor.

In a show of solidarity with his youngest students, Neustadt fired off personal invitations to the 15 frosh enrolled in Government 1560, "The American Presidency." Arriving at his Cambridge apartment around tea-time, the guests "talked a lot about the course and about Neustadt's life," says Rubin. "It was very informal, very nice."

Around dinner time the students sent out for pizza--"We all contributed, but Neustadt contributed the largest chunk," Rubin recalls.

Partisan Politics

Mather House resident Kris W. Kobach '88 won a second term as president of the Republican Club in elections held last week. Other new officers include Vice President L. Ellen Cox '89, Secretary Timothy A. Rea '90, and Treasurer Amy C. Smith '88.

Kobach says the club has already challenged the Democratic Club and Perspective magazine's staff to debates this spring. In addition, the club plans a trip to Washington over spring break to meet Cabinet members. The conservative campus organization is also preparing an issue of The Alternative, a Republican student journal founded last year.

But Kobach adds that club activities won't include campaigning for candidates in local municipal elections. "Republicans in Boston aren't like Republicans anywhere else. First of all, there aren't any, and second, they always lose," says Kobach.

Invasion of Moors Thwarted

Curiousity nearly killed the cat when a North House resident decided to check out his room in Moors Hall, the Quad dorm closed for renovations. The student, who wished to remain anonymous, got in through a third-floor window from the top of a breezeway that connects Moors to an adjacent building. Inspection completed, he tried to walk out the front door.

An interior pair of double doors closed and locked behind him. He found the outside pair of doors padlocked from the outside. And only the construction crew, due to arrive at 7 a.m., had the keys.

Shortly after midnight, Cabot House security officer Manny Mango found the student imprisoned in a two-foot space between the two pairs of locked doors. After a brief conversation through the front door's mail slot, Mango liberated the adventurer by following his route into Moors in order to open the inside doors.

Procrastinator's Delight

Take heart, Gov jocks.

Correction of an "administrative error" has given Government thesis writers a week-long reprieve. According to the department's Thesis Writers' Handbook, the 80- to 120-page works were supposed to be due on March 19.

But concentrators and tutors will learn this week that the deadline has been pushed back a week to March 27, the day before spring break. This is the traditional deadline, says law student an former Gov concentrator Alan Khazei '85 because "the idea is, you hand in your thesis, you collapse, you go off on spring break."

Spring break falls later than usual because the 350th celebrations delayed this year's academic schedule. Thesis advisor Matthew Dickinson conjectures that the department ignored the delay in setting its thesis timetable.

"Actually, it's a blessing in disguise," he says of the later date. "If anything it's an unexpected Christmas present."

Let the Rumpus Begin

In January the hearts of senior senators--and Cambridge City Councilors--turn to thoughts of Novembers to come. City Hall rhetoric is heating up, and two challengers have already declared candidacy against the nine incumbents, whom they face this November.

Campaign finances are slim as yet, with balances ranging from Councilor Al Vellucci's $44 to the low thousands for most incumbents. Challengers Jonathan Myers and Edward Cyr are not required to submit financial reports yet, but Myers claims to have raised $10,000.

Myers' campaign manager is Quincy House senior Brian Murphy, who spent last year as field coordinator for Congressional candidate James Roosevelt, Jr.