"There are so many issues I wish I could speak about on the council floor, but if I did, I would be ceding the gavel every meeting," he says.

Other administrative tasks involve signing student group checks, holding office hours and dealing with phone calls and e-mail from outsiders interested in lobbying the Harvard student body on a variety of issues. But many of the smaller administrative functions, such as keeping attendance records, are left to the vice president.

All the same, the job of council president isn't exactly a slacker position. Besides banging the gavel,

Seton says the office is "the primary link from the voice of the student body to the administration."

"I'd say my favorite part of the job it taking an idea that's come from the student body and going and working on it with the administration and trying to get something achieved," he says.

Lately, those meetings have been fairly successful. Most recently, the support of Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 has propelled the council's vision of universal keycard access (UKA), largely because Lewis was able to convey the appropriate steps to success.

"While both the U.C. and I have been supportive of UKA, it would not have happened if I simply took input from the U.C. president," Lewis writes in an e-mail message, saying he conveyed to the council the importance of getting the House masters to agree with the plan.