At 10:15 Wednesday night, Todd E. Plants '01 mounts the fourth floor of Holworthy Hall to begin an evening of campaigning. Like other candidates for the Undergraduate Council presidency, Plants is focused on winning first-year votes.

Relaxed as ever in sneakers and jeans, bearing his ever-present clipboard, Plants explains why he always starts at the top of each entryway: "It's easier to motivate yourself going down."

Plants and his vice presidential running-mate Benjamin M. Wikler '03 are working hard to get their message out, collecting signatures from dorm rooms and dining halls. By gathering students' signatures, Plants and Wikler can add them to their campaign e-mail list.

The two say their focus on student involvement is what distinguishes them from the other candidates.

"If I win, and you ask me in January what's the most important thing I can accomplish, I would say, to get 10 more ways students can make policy at the University," says Plants, who is a Crimson editor.

"I realize that this is not the juiciest or sexiest thing for a legacy," he says. "However, it is important to have the people affected involved in decisions."

Despite the general perception, Plants says, College leadership is open to student participation. He says his own work on the council, mostly chairing the council's University Information Service (UIS) task force, has allowed him to affect change at Harvard, by lowering phone rates, for example.

"Any good administrator is interested in what students say, although they may not agree with them," Plants says. "It is a matter of saying 'we want a student voice' and setting up procedures."