Some former council members agree the council can be a difficult place for women. Former council member Niko Canner '94 says he "did get the sense that there may have been sexist remarks that were being thrown around."

And Melissa Garza '94, a former vice-chair herself, says that much of the work women do on the council goes unnoticed. "Sometimes women are treated as attractive, friendly council members, as opposed to hardworking and creative individuals," she says.

Being attractive can be important, Prabhu was told. When she ran for vice-chair the fall of junior year, she says, one male council member told her that she shouldn't worry about another female candidate, because the opponent "has got bigger tits than you have, but you've got better legs. She's blond, she's blond, and you're not, and you come across as more competent."

It was Prabhu's date rape activism that led her to consider the race for vice-chair. She agonized over whether to run.

But friends encouraged her to be a role model for women--if she won, she would be the council's highest female officer in its decade-long history--and to raise the organization from the level of council members like Michael P. Beys '94.

If Prabhu had an archnemesis, it was certainly Beys: overtly political, rarely polite or proper, an operator who hadlost $10,000 of the council's money on a De LaSoul concert. It was the bushy-haired Greek in theSpee versus the prim Canadian in the widebrimmedhat.

"People told me that if I didn't run, I'd beletting the council down," Prabhu recalls. "No oneelse had the strength and personality to keep theplace honest." Without skipping a beat, she adds,"How ironic is that?"

Prabhu won the election, narrowly, againstBeys. But in the events that followed, and thatoccupied the campus news for weeks, Beys emergedas the ultimate victor. Prabhu was overseeing asocial chair election, and was accused of ballotmisconduct. The ultimate winners of the chairelection were two Beys cronies.

Still, the accusations flew, a committeeconvered to investigate, some council membersattempted--and failed--to impeach her. Prabhuultimately resigned from the council, leaving acryptic letter as explanation.

"I left the council in full because I wasexhausted, the council was exhausted, andbecause... someone has to take responsibility andthere's a certain closure that needs to happen,"she says. She found that she "wasn't willing tocontinue to resurrect myself. I hadn't realizedhow my stamina had worn down. I wasn't eating, Iwasn't sleeping. The publicity was over-whelming.I started looking at the papers, and Mays G.Prabhu '94 became a different person from who Iwas."

The Maya G. Prabhu '94 in the papers wascertainly different from the person her councilfriends and allies expected her to be. Benjamin D.Unger '94, who sat on the investigation committee,describes the Prabhu controversy as a betrayal:"One of the reason why I was running for Councilwas because of Maya," he says. "I sort of feltlike we were the forces of good...she didsomething that was very unfair, and the type ofthing that we were there to fight against."

Prabhu learned, too that lift outside ofthe council and the headlines can be refreshing.Prabhu has seen council members who have "been inthe spotlight for so long and lost their sense ofperspective." She said she would not discouragepeople form entering the spotlight, but "I wouldquestion why they're doing it."

Mike Beys, incidentally, had no comment