The Undergraduate Council last night cast aside a proposal to elect members each semester.

The measure, offered by the Movement to Reform the Undergraduate Council, failed to win the support of 75 percent of the council members, who now serve year-long terms. The vote of three quarters of the council is needed to pass a constitutional reform like semesterly elections.

The move was backed by 35 council members, but also drew 26 opponents. Twenty-two members were absent.

After the vote, David V. Bonfili '96, a sponsor of the proposal, said he was disappointed by its failure. But he also said the MRUC had scored a victory for the larger cause of council reform.

"This is going to happen. It's just a matter of time," Bonfili said. "Of 18 freshmen, 14-4 voted in favor of this resolution. That's three-quarters. That's reassuring."

Bonfili pointed out that efforts to impose reform last year were met with disdain. "Last year we voted to ignore the referendum," he said. "Last year we couldn't even get close to a majority."

During debate before the full council, another sponsor of the measure, Rudd W. Coffey '97, said that adding a mid-year election would force members to confront student concerns more frequently. He also said that having elections each semester would allow bored and unproductive members to exit gracefully.

Several members challenged the reform by arguing that low voter turnout in the council's annual fall elections demonstrates student apathy towards balloting for council posts.

Council member Randall A. Fine '96 pointed out that, in recent years, the group has had trouble finding enough candidates to run for the council seats. Ninety-nine students ran for 88 seats this fall, and in some houses, there were no more candidates than there were open seats.

"Students just don't want to think about us," Fine said. "They don't want to be a part of us and they don't want to vote for us, so what's the point of making that happen twice a year?"

But former council presidential candidate Joshua D. Liston '95 abandoned his past reservations and came to the defense of the reform. He called the proposal an easy and urgent way for the council to improve its image among undergraduates.

"There has never been anything more important that the council has considered," Liston said. "We could gain legitimacy with this that we've never had."

Liston suggested that if the reform did not pass, he and other members would consider resigning their seats at the end of this term and running again for those seats in special elections this spring.

Another MRUC reform proposal, which would extend executive board terms from one semester to one year, was tabled until next week.

History Core

In other business, the council overwhelmingly endorsed a letter of student support for a history department proposal to turn History 10a and 10b into Historical Studies core courses.

Fine and N. Van Taylor '96, who co-sponsored the resolution, said the core curriculum offers few courses broad enough to be valuable to most students. The proposed Historical Studies A-10 and B-10, they said, would offer students the option of taking "Western civ. with a world perspective."

The history department is looking to endow teaching fellowships if this course is approved by a committee of faculty, students and administrators who oversee the core. The size of most sections for the proposed course is targeted at 10 students, significantly lower than the enrollment in most core sections.

In other news, Fine took another step last night in his two-year crusade to bring cable television to undergraduate dorms.

The council voted 59-3 to endorse Fine's ongoing negotiations with Harvard officials and Continental Cablevision.

The council also allocated $1000 for a tailgate party before the Harvard-Yale football game on Nov. 19.

And two members, Eliot House delegate Pathik Patel '97 and Mather House delegate Charis Menschel '97, were expelled from the council for excessive absences.CrimsonEdward H. WuRUDD W. COFFEY '97