The council's social year ended on a more positive note with a successful "Quadfest" cook-out and the traditional spring raft race, although the event's future was called into question in May because of an injury sustained by a participant.

There seemed to be a growing consensus at the end of the year that the College's new alcohol policy--wich requires ID checkers at all official events--may force the council to change how it plans and operates social events.

"It's very hard with the alcohol policy to throw successful big parties," Mandery said. "The council is in a tough spot. I think it's going to demand a lot of creativity."

The council's newly doubled budget could improve council-sponsored social events next year.

"I think with the extra money you'll see the council able to take on risks with a little less trepidation than it does now," Mandery said. "I think we're overly fearful," he adds.

In January, the council voted to seek an increase--from $10 to $20--in the fee it receives from each student's term bill. The funding hike was approved by the Faculty in April, and council budgets beginning next year will double to $120,000.

Most of the doubled budget will go to fund the council's grants to student groups, bringing them from $35,000 to $80,000 a year. The council's finance committee ended the year developing new guidelines to determine how they will distribute the new money.

In other actions, the council in November urged the Houses to consider installing condom machines in their houses, and in May dispensers were put into each House and the Freshman Union.

For the second time in as many years, the council and house committee members met with the Harvard Corporation. But unlike last year, when the council restricted its delegates' agenda to securing an open meeting, this spring council members discussed a wide range of student issues with the board members. The first council-Corporation meeting came in the spring of 1987 as a compromise, after Harvard's chief governing body rejected a request by students to hold an open meeting.

A report issued by a council committee on free speech will become the starting point of discussion for a student-faculty committee reviewing College policy this summer. The committee is likely to propose new guide-lines, which will seek to protect the rights of both speakers and protestors at campus events, to the full faculty next year.

The faculty-student committee, chaired by Ford Professor of International Security Joseph S. Nye, may recommend the abolishment of the Resolution on Rights and Responsibilities, a broad philosophical statement about the conduct expected of Harvard students that emerged in the wake of the student protests of the late 1960s.