"Having people who are not passive supporters but active advocates of our position is a valuable thing," PSLM founder Benjamin L. McKean '02 said.
Barkley and Matthew Zanotelli '02 both agree that the council should avoid political issues entirely.
"Now that we have 50 members, and there isn't a campus-wide mandate for it, it's not the will of the campus right now," Zanotelli said. "There's no way to unite opinion."
"I'm not sure the student body would agree that [the living wage] should be a priority of the council. Besides, it creates division on council to talk about this issues," Barkley says.
B.J. Averell '02 takes a middle-of-the-road stance similar to Gusmorino.
Averell argues that the council should support student groups when needed, but should remain outside of politics as much as possible.
"We have groups to that are pro-living wage and anti-sweatshops already," he says. "The U.C.'s purpose is not to serve the world at large, but to serve students here on campus."
--Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu