"Dean Lewis' actions simply serve to show the low opinion in which the UC is held by both the students and the administration," Averell said.

Averell said his candidacy, along with that of running-mate Amias M. Gerety '02, provided the chance to send Lewis a strong message about the council.

"Amias and I, by rocking the vote, will show the administration that students can care about the UC, and will bring more tangible benefits to the students," he said.

Matthew Zanotelli '02 has proposed a more radical solution to the council's funding problems.

In his platform, he and his vice presidential candidate, John F. Bash '03, advocate the creation of another optional term bill fee which would go towards an interest-bearing council endowment.

"Then the normal self-righteous response by the UC saying how students' interests weren't being taken into account, everyone will yell at everyone else, I will look at my watch, and 2 hours later we will be right back where we started," he said. "Dean Lewis will raise the term bill, and I support it."

Presidential candidate Stephen N. Smith '02 also supports the term bill hike, partly because he believes that a student referendum is too cumbersome.

"One of the reasons why it has never risen, is because the mechanism for changing it was ill-defined," Smith said. "The change is long overdue."