Council Should Get Money From University, Not From Students

To the editors:

It is wonderful that there are more student groups on campus and that they are holding more activities and so require more funding. However, if the Undergraduate Council thinks that it is in the average student's best interest to increase our term bill, they are sorely mistaken. If a club tried to levy their own $30 tax on their members, we would find this outrageous. Yet the council is trying to do just that and worse. They are asking us to support groups financially that we are, for the most part, not even members of. I would much rather give $30 directly to the group of my choice than to the council to dole out (and possibly lose).

Moneybags Harvard just raised billions of dollars, aside from their billions in the bank and what they squeeze out of us every year. They also just decided to lend out $20 million to save face from a shady real estate deal. Now they have the gall to claim that they don't have enough for student groups? That's an abomination. This is lunch money to the University. If Harvard is not serving its students well in academics as well as in extracurriculars, it is not doing its job. Our under-funded student groups should get more money and more space. They are the life of this University. But, Undergraduate Council, don't take your money from me when Harvard just lent $20 million to someone else.

Jennifer E. Cobelli '01

Nov. 12, 1999