When Warren G. Harding ran for president in 1920, he was able to capitalize on the domestic turbulence caused by the Great War and its after-math with a humble promise of a return to "normalcy."

Seventy years later, a young, ambitious member of Harvard's student government delivered a similar pledge and--like the businesslike Ohio senator--he rode it into office.

One semester after the Undergraduate Council was torn by a bitter controversy over the Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) which resonated nationally, Guhan Subramanian '91-'92 took the helm of the body at the beginning of its eighth year promising to return to the basics of student service.

And true to expectations, the council avoided major controversy. It put the ROTC debate behind it by forging a cautious, compromise position in October and commenced to organize a couple of moderately successful concerts.

Subramanian was so successful in steering the council clear of conflict, in fact, that representatives by the end of the year simply stopped coming to meetings.

As apathy reigned, the council struggled to attain a quorum at each of its last four meetings, and debate arose over procedural questions as Subramanian used some little known tactics to keep council business moving.

Burden of History

Last year, the Undergraduate Council, under the activist leadership of Council Chair Kenneth E. Lee '89, moving away from its traditional focus on student services and social events, took a series of ideological stands on political issues such as the all-male final clubs and the drive to unionize Harvard's clerical and technical workers.

But two drastic misjudgments at year's end--which resulted in a polarization of the campus on the issue of Harvard's affiliation the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and a $25,000 loss on a folk-rock concert--pushed the succeeding assembly back to firmer, and, in the minds of many, more boring grounds.

The previous spring, Lee's council passed a resolution calling on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to work toward bringing ROTC back to campus after a 20-year absence.

ROTC had left Harvard in the wake of the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s.

A week of stormy rallies led the council to repeal the motion on the grounds that an on-campus ROTC would violate University and council rules forbidding affiliation with groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

The military does not allow gays and lesbians to serve in its ranks.

Trying to put the issue behind it and develop a coherent position on ROTC, Subramanian's council this fall organized a campus forum, and then, after a heated two-hour debate, passed a resolution calling on FAS to work toward the return of ROTC to campus if the military abolishes its discriminatory practices.

Although the council dealt with the issue, some student activists felt it had moved too hastily.