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.

And as is suggested by his campaign strategy, he supports the failed Movement to Reform the Undergraduate Council (MRUC) proposal to establish direct elections of council officers by the entire undergraduate population.

Liston, in a dramatic move away from his past opposition to referendum movements like that of former council member Anjalee C. Davis '96, says council leaders need a mandate stronger than that established by the 20-40 percent voter turnouts of general council elections.

"I want to be able to say that I am the student body president," Liston says, "not just the Undergraduate Council president."

A New Image?

While Liston was once the favorite candidate for the presidency, the former vice president must now over-come a tarnished semester of limited engagement with the council.

In early December, Liston was expelled from the council for excessive absences. He was automatically reinstated, according to council policy, but the event epitomized a seeming withdrawal from council politics and policies.

Liston says that despite his lack of enthusiasm earlier this year, the council has always been his first priority.

"When I lost in the fall, I wanted Dave Hanselman to have a chance to run the council and [I did not want] to get in the way," Liston says. "Still, I was proud to step up when I thought it was absolutely necessary like in the debate over the term bill hike and the ROTC compromise."

Despite a comeback from attendance problems, expulsion is not the only black mark on Liston's record.

Liston incurred Hanselman's wrath at a presidential debate Wednesday night when he supported Gregoire's accusations of a conspiracy between Hanselman and Fine to selectively expel members of the council based on their votes on a constitutional reform package in the spring of 1993.

"I made sure people knew what Brandon said during the debate was true," Liston says. "But the theme I had that night is that I'm completely running on the issues."

Liston says he is most concerned about those issues that will directly affect everyday students' lives.

Planks in his position paper, entitled "The Contract With the College," include pressuring the University to improve lighting in dorm rooms, provide personal computers for students, increase MAC facilities, reform the Core curriculum, preserve choice in the housing lottery and relax the University's alcohol policy.

And even if he doesn't win the election and have the chance to implement those plans, Liston says he hopes to establish a new tradition for presidential campaigning.

"I'm the biggest thinker on the council, about where it is and where it needs to go," Liston says. "As well, I've gotten my hands dirty in some projects."

As vice president last spring, Liston repeatedly came under fire for administrative incompetence. He was nearly impeached for failing to expel more than a half-dozen council members with excessive absences.

In addition, Liston was the official administrator of a campus-wide referendum that was tainted by a host of improprieties. The council ultimately invalidated that referendum.

Liston, who supported a term-bill fee hike of $10, allegedly tried to rig the referendum. But Liston's version of his actions in support of the hike are more spirited than sinister.

"I tried to get council members excited about going out and talking to people about the term bill hike," he says. "I even dressed up in my roommate's gorilla suit to try and get people excited."

The hike passed, despite widespread student opposition. But this fall, Liston says, he realized the raising of the fee was a mistake and worked to rectify it.

"I promised when I ran for president last fall that if I lost, the first thing I would do would be to kill the fee hike," Liston says. "And I did it that very evening."