"As President of the undergraduate studentgovernment at Harvard College, I am writing instrong endorsement of Mickey Edwards as the newdirector of the Institute of Politics," Hanselmanwrote. "I strongly encourage you to take thisendorsement, on behalf of Harvard undergraduates,into thoughtful consideration."

Liston compared the press release to theletter. "I never said I was acting as thepresident of the U.C.," he said. "I just said Iwas the president. There's a big difference."

Hanselman said last night that no comparisoncan be made between the two incidents.

"Liston is trying to compare apples tooranges," Hanselman said.

Council member Philip R. Kaufman '98 said thatthe petition against Liston is a part of apersonal vendetta against him.

"There certainly are questions about the ethicsof what he did, but I think the censure is more ofa personal thing," Kaufman said. "I think it is apolitical move, that it is much more related topersonal animosity between council members thatwas formed long ago than about Gina Grant."

Rudd W. Coffey '97, co-chair of the council'scampus life committee (CLC), said that suchpolitical bickering will prevent the council frommaking positive accomplishments.

"I think this gets away from what the councilshould be doing," Coffey said. "Actually, thisreally pisses me off. I've been working on a lotof things all year in the CLC, and a lot of themare coming to a head right now. I'm angered thatthey are going to be overshadowed by a politicaldebate over whether a senior who is going to begone in a month did something wrong."

Censure procedure

The petition signed Thursday is in accordancewith the council's bylaws, which state that "anyten members in good standing on the council mayintroduce a motion to... censure any officer formisconduct."

The petition must then be submitted to thecouncil's vice-president, Justin C. Label '97.

Label said he received the petition Thursdaynight and promptly notified Liston after verifyingthat the signatures were valid, as specified inthe bylaws.

"It is my expectation that during that portionof the meeting Josh would step down and I wouldchair the meeting," Label said. "Then there willbe a five minute speech by the proponents of thepetition, a five minute speech by Josh and,finally, council debate."

Council parliamentarian Jason E. Schmitt '98said that the council is authorized to take twoforms of disciplinary action against councilmembers, an impeachment and a censure.

"An impeachment would remove the member fromoffice," Schmitt said. "But a censure is just anofficial reprimand."