"You could say that she was necessary, but not sufficient for reform," Bonfili says.
Other council members say the changes would have happened with or without Davis.
Council Vice President Brandon C. Gregoire '95 says Davis "didn't have that much to do with shooting the [fee hike] down."
He says the council had to demonstrate clear student support for the fee hike before it could bring the issue before the Faculty Council.
And he says there was "a lot of negative sentiment" that precluded the Undergraduate Council from going forward.
Rudd W. Coffey '97, co-chair of the campus life committee and co-founder of MRUC, says the council decided to repeal the two measures simply because they were constantly distracting members from the student government's real business: serving undergraduates.
He says many of the members voted to repeal the measures because they "didn't want to be part of an organization they couldn't be proud of."
But first-year law school student Carey W. Gabay '94, who was council president last year, characterizes the new council as more "pragmatic" and "political."
Gabay says that compared to the one he led, this council is more sensitive to student opinion as reflected in campus press.
"It's always good to have a newspaper around to check a student government, or any government," Gabay says. "But I don't think it's a good think if 90 percent of the council's decisions are based on what The Crimson says."
"The job of a student representative isn't to mirror the [will] of the students," Gabay adds. "It's to take that in part and in part to make your own decisions [on the issues]."