One day after narrowly winning the race to lead next year's Undergraduate Council, the incoming student body president and vice-president pledged yesterday to represent all students--even as they vowed to move the council away from taking stances on social issues and toward directly providing services to improve student life.

Running as a ticket and boasting the campus' best-publicized campaign, President-elect Beth A. Stewart '99 and Vice President-elect Samuel C. Cohen '00 achieved a narrow victory over two ideological opponents, Jobe G. Danganan '99 and Kamil E. Redmond '00.

While Stewart and Cohen echoed their platform's refrain, "Action, for a Change," Danganan and Redmond had vowed to maintain the council's progressive advocacy on issues ranging from Faculty diversity to a multicultural student center--hallmarks of the liberal legacy of current council President Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 and her predecessor, Robert M. Hyman '98.

Stewart, who won the election by a narrow margin of 48 votes over Danganan, said she is eager to begin work.

"I'm very aware of the closeness of the race," said Stewart, a Winthrop House resident from Columbus, Ga. "But I'm elated as I can be. Now is the time to build some bridges in the council."

She pledged to remain receptive to student input. "My existence is not devoted to squashing anyone's agenda as a representative," said Stewart, a Republican who worked this summer in the office of Speaker of the House Next Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Stewart said that many of her campaign platforms--including putting an end to council concern with larger political issues such as the recent referendum on Harvard Dining Services' boycott of California grapes--may cause controversy within the council. But she said the conflicts will be short-lived.

"I think there are very finite goals that we can set and say 'Yes, we have achieved success on this issue,'" Stewart said, drawing a distinction between larger political issues and those that are of direct importance to students.

"Faculty diversity is something long term that we always have to keep an eye on," she said. "But that will probably not be one of the immediate goals of this leadership."

Rawlins said she was disappointed but expressed hope in the student body's choice of Stewart and Cohen.

"It's obvious that they have a different agenda than I have, but I do wish them luck in serving students," she said.

"I feel like we've been very strong on student services in the past. I'm happy to see that they'll be continuing with that."

Yet Rawlins tempered her comments with a call for the activism she has supported in the council to advance simultaneously the twin goals of social advocacy and student services.

"I feel very strongly that an activist council is not at odds with a council that's concerned with student services," Rawlins said. "We can do both, and do both well, and we have."

Stewart's immediate goals include providing vans for student group transportation, making more funds available to groups from the alumni endowment and finding office space for student groups.

Stewart said groups wary of a conservative council president "have absolutely nothing to fear."