Driskell has argued that while student services and campus-wide events are clearly important--she lauds UC Books, as well as Springfest and the Har'd CORPS community service day--there is a place for political advocacy on the council.

In one sense, the second-semester liberal-conservative divide was an improvement over that of the first term. Under Seton and Redmond's watch, the council's leadership itself was split along ideological lines.

By last fall, the Seton-Redmond partnership--which aimed to unite the council--was in disrepair. At one point, the council president and vice president were no longer speaking to one another.

Ideological differences between the two boiled over in November, when Redmond publicly railed against the council's unwillingness to push the administration--a clear shot at Seton's work-within-the-system philosophy.

Redmond said she also felt a conservative "cabal" dominated the council. According to Redmond, the chair and vice chair of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC)--John Paul Rollert '00 and Michael D. Shumsky '00--wielded too much influence over Seton and the council.

Shumsky is one of what Driskell calls the "few die-hards" who refuse to accept what she sees as the gradual elimination of the liberal-conservative split on the council.

Yet the distinction seems unlikely to disappear from council politics any time soon.

Council observers anticipate the next presidential election will pit Campus Life Committee (CLC) Co-Chair Stephen N. Smith '02, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement, against SAC Vice Chair Paul A. Gusmorino '02, who masterminded UC Books.

Leaner and Meaner?

However, some issues cut across the political spectrum this year.

Council members largely agreed on two main things in the past year. They agreed that the council was too big and that it was too poor.

In a Dec. 15 referendum, the student body took care of the first problem, voting to cut the council's size from roughly 90 down to 50 members.

Everyone seemed to agree this was the best way to deal with low attendance and high dropout rates. The downsized council will debut next year, with only three members per House.

"It's going to be better," Driskell says. "It's going to be much harder to slip through the cracks."

Students showed little faith in the council, though, by voting not to raise the student activity fee on the term bill from $20 to $50 per year, which would have put the council's budget on par with many other schools of Harvard's size.

The referendum's failure was particularly painful to the council because the vote was so close.