Fighting Discrimination

The council also turned its reforming eye on discrimination policy within the University.

In January, the council voted to recommend that Memorial Church's administrative board allow same-sex blessing ceremonies to be held in the church.

"I think it goes against Harvard's non-discrimination policy, which I hold very dear. What they're saying is that straight people can use Memorial Church, gay people cannot," said Sarah K. Hurwitz '99.

Later that semester, the council voted to include gender identity in its non-discrimination clause.

The term gender identity includes the transgendered, transsexuals, cross-dressers and hermaphrodites.

The council also urged Harvard to include gender identity in the University's own non-discrimination clause, although no change has yet been made.

"What we are saying is that transgendered people will be let into Harvard [and] will be let into the Undergraduate Council," said Daniel S. Quint '97. "I think that's something the entire student body would stand for."

Rawlins also lauded the council's work in this area.

"This is a proactive type of legislation," she said. "We are holding up transgenderism as something that need not be discriminated against."

Structual Reform

In the spring, the council created an extra-council committee of students to give the council major structural overhaul. However, the committee's high hopes for dramatic change fell flat when most of the extensive reforms failed to pass by the end of the year.

Many students said they felt the council was out of touch with the majority of the student body.

"A major problem with the U.C. and the student body is a lack of communication," said Susan M. Groppi '98, vice-chair of the reform committee. "The U.C. doesn't know what the student body wants from it and the student body doesn't know what the U.C. is doing."

Members of the council said they felt the organization had to reach outside its membership because it did not have the structural capacity to reform itself.