Last week's Undergraduate Council election was a runaway victory for Fentrice D. Driskell '01 and her running mate John A. Burton '01. The council itself did not fare as well.

While Driskell scored more than twice as many votes as the second-place candidate, the referendum to raise the council's term bill--which outgoing council president Noah Z. Seton '00 had trumpeted as the cure to the council's financial woes--was ultimately rejected by a majority of voters.

Council members had hoped an increase in funds would increase its visibility--and legitimacy--on campus as well, by allowing it to fund student groups more substantially and stage more frequent and more elaborate campus-wide events.

Soon after the election's results were announced, exasperation started pouring out over uc-general, the council's public newsgroup.

A handful of council members suggested ignoring the student body's vote. Driskell told The Crimson she has considered asking Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 to raise the term bill to $50 unilaterally.

She also said she would look into finding alternative sources of funding--such as corporate sponsorship of Springfest.

Chad A. Wathington '00 said he believed the referenda had left the council hamstrung by an insufficient budget and too few members, and announced his resignation as a result.

"I believe we have inadvertently hurt the future of thousands of current and future Harvard undergraduates by giving them a U.C. which will not be able to support their needs in any real way," he wrote in an e-mail message to uc-general.