Gregoire, who dropped out of the race just a day later, charged that Beys, then-secretary Fine and then vice chair Hanselman had conspired to selectively boot delegates with excessive absences from the council.

This was done, Gregoire charged, so that the troika could secure the passage of the council's new constitution, penned largely by Fine himself.

Gregoire also said that Fine, as chair of the re-evaluation committee, had doctored the constitution--with-out the council's consent--following its passage.

Fine refuses to comment on any of the charges, except to say that they were "absolutely untrue."

He similarly denies wrong doing in connection with other allegations that have been made against him in his time at Harvard: buying votes in a Republican Club election in 1992; conflict of interest and gross violation of council rules in deciding to run the council's general election as acting vice president in the 1993; and deciding to keep for himself a large grant from the EPA that he obtained in the council's name.

A probe of Gregoire's allegations against Fine reveals that there may be more truth behind them than the presidential candidate would like to admit.

More than half a dozen current and former delegates who served on the council in 1993 say Fine, Hanselman and/or Beys boasted to them of a conspiracy to fix the constitutional vote.

In the words of one former council member, the three then-executives "were having a hard time reaching the quota" for a vote on the constitution.

"They started cutting people off the council," the source says. "Then they started realizing that some of the people they cut off were their natural supporters. I can't figure out whether it was Randy or Dave who suggested selectively expelling people."

Hanselman, who was vice-chair at the time, has repeatedly denied the charges, adding that then-secretary Fine had nothing to do with attendance.

Other members of the 11th council level even more charges. They say Fine arbitraily decided to change, delete or add clauses to the constitution while he was typing up the council-approved document.

"Certain things in the council constitution were never formally approved," says one former council member who attended every meeting that spring.

The council member charges that a clause sending unspent funds to the house committees was inserted by Fine.

Another of Fine's changes, council members say, was designed to give himself more power. In the current council hierarchy, the secretary precedes the treasurer in the line of succession after the vice president; before the new constitution, it was the other way around.

Official minutes from the spring of 1993 are unavailable to resolve the issue (please see story, page 5).