"I don't want to say I'm hardened, but I guess those are the best words," he says, reflecting on the end of his tenure as chair. "By the end of the year, my patience was tried. I left my last executive meeting in a huff," he says.

As chair, Mandery drew a lot of criticism from those who felt the council should take stands on controversial campus issues. He maintained throughout that the primary role of the council should be to provide student services--services that no other undergraduate organizations can provide.

"I felt and still feel that most of the things the council [should do are] student services," he says. "Providing concerts that don't lose $35,000. Non-controversial issues that reflect student opinion."

However, Mandery's most trying experience as chair came when the council was working to put on a concert. Evan had to tell a concert promoter that he would have to cancel an appearance by Chuck Berry because the Harvard student who struck the concert deal had not been authorized by the council.

"It was the most unpleasant five minutes anyone can imagine, but I still feel I did the right thing," Mandery says.

Evan also says he was frustrated by his old love--the campus press. In high school, he had been editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper and looked forward to becoming involved in college journalism.

"The only thing I was interested in when I came here was comping the Crimson," Mandery says. He finished the comp, but chose to give up journalism for a more enticing career in campus politics.

As a council member, he believes that he was sometimes misrepresented by the Harvard media. "There are times when I felt the council was being unfairly portrayed," he says. "I never went around boasting, and yet I felt we got cast as politicians and egotistical slobs which we weren't," he says.

The following year, as the council's only "elder statesman," Mandery found his senior year on the council generally satisfying.

Evan's conduct at this year's council meetings ranged from the passionate to the quirky and humorous. He was equally at home walking out of a meeting to protest the rude conduct of council spectators as he was delivering a light-hearted address mocking the speeches of freshpeople running for council office.

However, he was somewhat disappointed with the council's final days: the last several weeks were fraught with controversy, and Mandery, after four years on the council, felt that his achievements were not appreciated.

"I didn't feel the perception that I had done a good job," Mandery says. "I didn't feel any personal warmth. I didn't feel as if the time I'd put in was appreciated. I wanted people to say 'Evan Mandery did a decent job. Thank you.' "

Nonetheless, as Mandery leaves Harvard--either to teach school in England or to attend law school at either Columbia or New York University (he hasn't heard from Harvard yet)--he is not likely to forget the council.

The fact that Mandery took things personally demonstrates both his dedication to the council and the human side of the chair. Despite his eventual frustration, his emotional responses say something important about Mandery's "life-long career" in campus politics: competition and criticism were not the only things he took personally--his individual style also extended to a unique personal commitment to the Undergraduate Council.