For the first time ever, two women—Sujean S. Lee ’03 and Anne M. Fernandez ’03—are running on the same ticket for president and vice president of the Undergraduate Council.

While this may be a new thing for the council, the council is anything but new to Lee and Fernandez.

Lee, who is the current vice president of the group, has been a member of the council since her freshman year, served as social chair of the Campus Life Committee (CLC) and co-founded and co-directs the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC).

Fernandez says she “dove” into her council career as a sophomore and has not looked back since. She served as the council events coordinator and was co-chair of the Finance Committee last year and is currently the treasurer.

Lee’s website, www.fas.harvard.edu/ ~sslee, reflects campaign savvy she gained from her campaign with Paul A. Gusmorino ’02 last year. Floating orange and black graphics outline her ticket’s platform, while jazz music plays in the background.

The Lee-Fernandez duo is not shy about the long-standing council commitment either.

Their experience-boasting slogan, “Build a better Harvard with proven leaders. The best is yet to come” adorns the top of orange posters, which are plastered on boards across campus.

“In the past year, the UC has become a very effective organization,” Lee says. “Annie and I just want to take it one step further.”

The Right Stuff?

While nobody denies that Lee and Fernandez have a lot of council experience under their belts, some members doubt that it is the right experience.

The past two council presidents, Gusmorino and Noah Z. Seton ’00 were both chairs of the council’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC). SAC officers deal with University administrators far more than CLC officers, like Lee. Even Lee admits herself that these types of interactions with administrators are crucial to a productive council presidency.

“[Lee and Fernandez] both have a good deal of experience but their experience is doing things like the Concert Commission, the freshman formal, things that are more social,” says former council Treasurer Justin A. Barkley ’02.

“Neither of them are experienced in the bread and butter of council work like lobbying for later party hours. That’s something Paul has excelled at and they haven’t experienced.”

Lee says she recognizes that students on CLC interact less with administrators, but that her tenure as vice president has provided her with an important link to the administration.

She says she has met deans and faculty by attending council-related meetings, helping Gusmorino with his projects and planning campus-wide events with Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71.