In addition to bringing women's issues to the UC agenda, caucus members said they hope to make the council more inviting to females and inspire more women to run for office.

"UC has a reputation for being heavily male, heavily Republican, and strict with its use of Robert's Rules of Order," Redmond said.

She said she hopes to dispel this image by having regular meetings for women on the council, offering workshops on parliamentary procedure and publicizing the council more to all minority students.

In addition to hoping for a higher proportion of women on the executive board next semester, Redmond said she feels the council needs more members of color to better represent all Harvard undergraduates.

The issue of publicity and reaching out to a greater proportion of the student body is an important one for council right now. The council had trouble filling its 89 seats this semester, and some current members feel that the decrease in women's interest is simply a reflection of the general lack of interest this year.

"I don't think there's anything off-putting about the council to women or minorities," says James R. Griffin '02, secretary of the council. "The problem is that students in general are not interested."

Redmond expressed her concerns to the group at large at last night's regular council meeting. With not much else on the agenda, some time was devoted to questions regarding the numbers of students of color, international students and students of varying sexual orientations on the council. Redmond promised to provide these statistics at the next meeting.