AFTER FIVE years of sometimes tortuous soul-searching, the Undergraduate Council seems to have found itself.

Born from a muddled campus-wide referendum in 1982, the council has been struggling to justify its existence ever since. In the early years, members became embedded in factional disputes. Report-writing, paperwork-loving, xerox-happy bureaucrats fought bitterly against campus activists who campaigned for council seats in order to force the hand of the University on such issues as divestment from companies doing businesses with South Africa.

The struggle culminated two years ago in a failed mid-year challenge to the incumbent chairman--and left the activists out in the cold shanties of the Yard. The failed coup consolidated the power of the student-services, consensus-types and convinced the activists to look for other places to make a difference.

Last year, under the administration of Chairman Richard S. Eisert '88, the council worked to establish a 24-hour word-processing center and Sunday hours for Widener Library. Both efforts were successful. Political issues, such as divestment and Harvard's closed governing bodies, were debated about as hotly as whether to ask the dining halls to provide cereal at every meal.

In possibly the most important of the issues to go before the council last year--reform of the disciplinary system--the council was captured by the administration. Rather than standing firm as the students' voice, the council leaders submitted to the deans and accepted window dressings in place of actual reforms. The council members didn't push to give students the minimal protection of a written code of rules.

And where has the council been while Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 and the house masters have been tightening the clamp on alcohol and Harvard's mediocre social life? Why did the group have nothing to say during the past few weeks as some house masters imposed limits on the number of guests students could put up in the rooms they pay for?

This year's election of Chairman Evan J. "Where's Harvard's Social Life?" Mandery '89 makes it pretty clear that the council's political past has passed into history. He campaigned promising more campus-wide parties and recreational events. This may well have been a wise stance.

Quite simply, council members too often are swayed by administrators. They have not proven themselves able advocates of student interests. Planning tailgate parties and battles of the bands is what the council can do well. Perhaps it speaks well of the new chairman that apparently he has recognized and accepted that fact.