Feeney said he believes the influence of PUCC will wane as first-year members come into their own as council members.

"They're gonna be a helluva lot less important on issues than on the elections," Feeney predicted. "They have three of the four executive officers who are clearly PUCC members, but as the semester goes on, the first-years are going to get their own opinions of how PUCC is running the council, and [PUCC is] not going to be able to pass legislation a effectively."

The possibility of PUCC becoming a regular voting block could be detrimental to the council, Coffey warned.

"The only danger of a voting block is if they pretend they are not," Coffey said. "If there are 38 of them that are going to show up at every meeting, that's going to be a majority a lot of the time. I don't want the illusion of debating on the floor when everything has been decided behind the scenes."

Whether or not a voting block develops, PUCC must now determine its character as an alliance, Coffey said.

"It has the potential to be a political group on the council or a force to motivate students. I hope it's the latter," he said.

Several council members and former officers said they are concerned by the collective lack of experience among the new executives.

While Coffey said Hyman and Blais are good leaders, he said he hopes the council will continue to call on the experience of its more senior members.

"What will make the difference is if Jon, [outgoing vice-president Justin P. Label '97] and myself really help out a lot behind the scenes," Coffey said. "I hope we don't neglect the 20-some experienced members who know how to work with the [College] administration and know what it's like to spend three hours on the council every Sunday night.

Coffey warned new members not to neglect more experienced council members.

"If that group feels downtrodden, that's not a good thing," he added.

But Blais said he felt the lack of experience on the executive board will not strongly affect the council.

"Rob and I know how the council works, and we will have experienced committee chairs," Blais said. "Besides, everybody focuses on the executive board, but it really doesn't have that much power. The worst thing we can do is hold something off the docket for a week."

Label, a defeated presidential candidate, said he foresaw more dire consequences for the inexperienced officers.

"As much as the old guard is despised, we know how things are supposed to run," Label said. "They run that way for a reason."

"Even at [Sunday's] meeting there was a great deal of parliamentary confusion," he added, citing an attempt by new council members to delay a vote for the treasurer.

Purdy said he thought the lack of experience might be a problem in the short run, but that PUCC should be able to work through it.

"Some of PUCC's members have a great deal of council experience and knowledge of parliamentary procedure," Purdy said. "I hope they will serve as a model for PUCC representatives. I find it difficult to imagine it will remain a serious impediment for long.