In what Undergraduate Council members termed the most difficult vote in recent memory, the council voted last night to sever its affiliation with the Ivy Council (IC)-an organization with which the council has long questioned its connection.

The break with the IC signals the end of a rocky relationship with an organization meant to unite student councils from the eight Ivy League schools.

In January, the Undergraduate Council passed a resolution to review its connection with the IC at the end of the year and disaffiliate if the IC did not meet a series of reforms the council mandated. The council instructed the IC to submit budgets and schedules by set dates, to facilitate communication between schools using e-mail and to cut down on "frivolous" activities and expenditures.

In response, the IC's newly-elected president and vice-president came to speak on their organization's behalf, and many council members have acknowledged recent improvements. However, opponents of the IC say the changes have not gone far enough to make up for past problems.

Members disagreed to what extent the requirements of the January ultimatum had been met by the IC, but all sides agreed that the year's budgets and schedules were submitted late if at all and that the IC had not yet resolved its financial woes.

Multiple council members criticized the IC for using personal contributions from its members to finance its conferences, citing the $2,000 that council members Robert M. Gee `02 and Trisha S. Dasgupta `03 loaned the IC in February, only to be repaid last week.

But it's not just the money, Gee said.

"At one [IC] meeting, we just sat around in a circle for two hours and talked about our favorite memory as a child," he said.