As the future consultants among us know, we need to think outside the box. A better way to distill student opinion into a single assembly would be to give individual, College-recognized student groups a seat on the council. It would still be an imperfect way to garner student opinion, but almost certainly more accurate than the current council structure. There is no logical reason why council representation should be assigned geographically.

As it stands now, students do not respect the council, and it's unlikely any amount of frozen yogurt will change that. We need people to perform both of the council's chief duties--representing us and working to improve student services. But the two should not be consolidated into a single body when it only results in confusion and apathy.

The poor reputation of today's council comes from a mismatch between what it calls itself and what it actually does. Many current council members do a good job trying to make the campus a better place. But it's a joke to say they "govern." Scrap these farcical elections and pretensions of democracy, and the council will have a clearer role on campus and the flexibility to accomplish more.

Alan E. Wirzbicki '01 is a history and literature concentrator in Eliot House. His column will resume in January.