"I've been thinking about this since I was a rep myself," Smith said at the committee's last meeting.

At that meeting, Smith presented a proposal for sweeping changes to the constitution that would scrap the three current council committees and create four new ones.

Smith proposes getting rid of SAC, the Finance Committee and the CLC. In its place, the council would have a Grants Committee to handle financial duties, an All-House Committee in charge of managing relations with House Committees, an Administrative Relations Committee to deal with administrators and student-Faculty committees and a Student Groups Committee to serve as a liaison to campus organizations.

Smith thinks these new structures will dramatically improve the council's ability to relate to students and administrators.

But the plan has drawn criticism from some of the conservative council members who allied with Smith in the past, in addition to many liberal council members.

"It's just more bureaucracy," Cohen says. "It's going to turn more people off." He went on to say that the three-committee system works and that past attempts to involve House Committees in campus-wide life have failed.

Council Treasurer Sterling P.A. Darling '01--a conservative council member--agreed with Cohen.

"I also agree with Sam. These things don't work," says Darling, who says he is sympathetic to Smith's desire for reform.