Gee said that the UC Boxes program is part of the effort of the council to redefine its focus.
"We are getting ourselves focused toward students services," Gee said. "Students appreciate that."
Krishnan N. Subrahmanian '03, who bought boxes from the council in Pforzheimer, agreed with Gee's assessment.
"I definitely appreciated it," Subrahmanian said. "I usually don't see the U.C. affecting me, but I definitely did in this case."
Despite the UC Boxes program, businesses in the Square have not noticed a reduction in the sales of boxes.
"We didn't see a decrease in box sales [over last year]," said Renée Brown, a supervisor at the CVS in Harvard Square. She said that the store has sold between 600 and 1,000 boxes in the last two weeks.
--Staff writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.