Last fall, Joshua D. Liston '95 seemed heir apparent to the Undergraduate Council presidency.

An outgoing vice president with strong support among loyal friends on the council, Liston says he hardly considered defeat a possibility.

This time, however, Liston admits he could lose. And with a new attitude comes a new kind of campaign.

His grassroots effort this spring, focusing on direct interaction with all undergraduates--not just those voting in tomorrow night's election--casts Liston in a new role: an outsider.

Already, Liston has begun distributing a one-page position paper to every undergraduate dorm room.

At the bottom of the sheet are instructions to students: if they like what he has to offer, Liston asks that they get in touch with their council delegates, whose names and phone numbers he provides.

Already students have responded. Opposing candidate Rudd W. Coffey '97 said last night that a Lowell House constituent had called to tell him to vote for Liston. Liston's position papers were door-dropped only yesterday afternoon.

Liston seems to be circumventing internal council politics in going straight to the students and asking them to, in effect, campaign for him.

If constituents ask their delegates to support Liston in the election, the candidate has achieved perhaps the most effective persuasion of all.

It's an unusual tactic, far from the one he unsuccessfully tried in the fall when he lost a close election to David L. Hanselman '94-'95.

That time, a confident Liston focused on council delegates whose votes would determine success or defeat.

"I definitely did learn from my loss last semester," Liston says. "I don't think I did an efficient job of selling my vision of the council and its relation to the student body."

Liston says his new campaign strategy is only the first example of a commitment he would make, as the council's leader, to forge and foster bonds between council members and their constituents.

One of Liston's campaign promises is ensuring that a member of the council's executive board visits each dorm room during the semester to inform students of council activities and opportunities to run for office.

Liston also says he plans to require representatives to hold office hours in their houses or Yard areas rather than in the council office.