Still, Beys has the support of the majority of the council, as demonstrated by the outcome on Sunday.

Mikes election signifies the council's confidence in the direction the U.C is going, which began last year, said David A. Aronberg '93, referring to his 1991-1992 term as chair.

Aronberg said he and his successor Heinicke ushered in a "new approach to student government," leading the council to emerge from a quiet, behind the scenes organization into tackling high profile and sometimes controversial issues.

Recently the council has debated date rape and ROTC and ventured into big social events Rico Reyes '93, who also ran against Beys affirmed that a general trend of assertiveness and activism had begun to develop over that last semester.

Beys said that in the past, he "thought extensively about what the council should be doing and [its] missing ingredients". It was over the last semester that the council began to "add those ingredients, and we've really made a lot of progress."

While recent consensus on the council has supported more smaller concerts. Beys did promise that the council will not "shy away from decisive campus issues" this spring.

On Sunday night, Beys spoke of ambitious plans for the council. "I think the council's starting to like guts and act assertively. We're going to tackle big issues head on."

Ivy A. Wang contributed to the reporting of this article.