James C. Coleman '03, Harvard's head delegate to the Ivy Council, says that proof of the conference's value is on the way.

"The organization really has a serious answer to people who criticize it as a waste of money," Coleman says.

Coleman and Ivy Council President Matthew C. Ebbel '01 say the Ivy Council didn't understand its proper role until about a year and a half ago. Until then, Ebbel says, the group tried to make sweeping statements on behalf of the Ivy League in general.

Now, after rewriting its constitution, the organization is content to serve the more modest but achievable goal of spreading information around the Ivy League.

And to hear Ebbel and Coleman tell it, that information flow is finally bringing concrete results to the student body.

For instance, Driskell says she got the centerpiece of her agenda this year, Harvard Census 2000, from a similar proposal mentioned by Dartmouth College delegates at an Ivy Council conference where she was a delegate.

And Driskell's program is not the only thing that has come out of the Ivy Council. The conference also led to the creation of another conference, the Ivy Leadership Summit, to which Harvard sent 10 students last weekend.