Get Thee to a Ballot Box

To be or not to be? We thought such self-questioning doubt was reserved for certain Shakespearean tragic heroes. Little did we know that a certain Undergraduate Council chair was losing sleep over the very same question.

Evan B. Rauch this week undertook an unprecedented--and by some accounts, overblown--effort to see whether the council would like him to run for a second-semester term, given his stated intention to step down in April. Rauch employed the Hare System of proportional voting, an extremely complicated, but reportedly effective, balloting system straight out of the pages of John Stuart Mill.

The results: Twenty-one council reps said "to be." Fifteen said "not to be."

And the winner: Fifty-one didn't care, and didn't bother to vote.

Getting Out of the Rauch Motel

Mid-year elections on the Undergraduate Council are usually pretty sedate affairs. But the electoral exploits of Chair Evan B. Rauch have turned this year's council politics into something of a melodrama. None of the three officers besides the chair have opted to run for reelection, making way for an unprecedented mid-semester changing of the guard.

Meanwhile Rauch's opponents have declared open season on the popular chair and his version of the New Hampshire Primary.

Says Adam Taxin '93: "He has every right to do cheesy little stunts like the pre-election poll. I still think I will win."

And Robert Rhew '92 seems more than anxious to take the helm: "The transition will be very smooth if I jumped in."

Play nice, boys.

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Vice President and General Indecision

When the Crimson learned that the United States General Accounting Office will soon be investigating "indirect costs" at the Harvard Medical School, a reporter called Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 for the University's official response.

It seemed, however, that the Federal government had not yet informed Harvard of the investigation. "We have not been notified of an investigation at this time," Steiner said. But, he added, "That doesn't mean there isn't going to be one."

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Baked Bean Bureaucracy?

Michael Berry has only been the director of Harvard Dining Services for three weeks, but he has already earned a reputation for his laid-back style and emphasis on student input. Berry has been known to eat in the House dining halls, and says that he pays special attention to student input.

That's all well and good, but it seems that Berry can't help but slip into techno-dining-service-speak when describing the meals that makes students' mouths water. He says he will push for more "self-service topping bars," an expanded "sandwich bar program" and an enlarged "hamburger program."

Two questions inevitably arise: What, exactly, is a hamburger program, and will it involve "Hamburgers on request" at breakfast?