"We need more of a discourse and division on the Council. The council is so complacent," Blake says. "We haven't had a meeting that lasted more than an hour--even our budget meeting was only 40 minutes long," he adds, referring to meetings chaired by current President Beth A. Stewart '00.

Blake and Stone say that, if the lines of communication are opened up between students and their representatives, then more controversial issues will reach the Council.

"Under Beth Stewart's presidency, individual representatives have not felt empowered to bring up their constituents' views," Stone says. "We want to focus on the little things immediately...[but] we do need to bring down the iron curtain on political issues."

Blake, as co-chair of the committee that plans Springfest and other campus-wide social events, would like to see the Council's role in planning such events changed.

"We should invite student groups into the process [of planning Springfest] earlier," Blake says. "We should take some of the money we've earmarked for Springfest and give it to student groups and house committees, who are better at organization and execution," adds Blake, who is also a member of the Committee on House Life.

"The U.C. has proven itself ineffective at sponsoring social events," he declares.

While Blake's and Stone's proposals amount to redefining the role of the Council on campus, the candidates are opposed to any structural changes in the body.

"The worst thing we can do is to do anything that will make people doubt the representative ability of the Undergraduate Council more than they already do," Stone says.

"We want people to feel that this is the right forum for any issue," Blake stresses. "We want Council members to choose from these issues and work on them--to be more than figureheads."