Other council members questioned Harvard's use for the IC, saying that they should not need to pay a membership fee to communicate with students around the Ivy League.

"We can use listservs to communicate with other schools without being in the Ivy Council," said Todd E. Plants `01, chair of the council's Student Affairs Committee.

Of the IC's recent efforts at reform, Plants said, "it's just too little, too late."

But the council's decision did not come easily.

It took a final vote from Council President Paul A. Gusmorino `02 to create a 16-16 tie within the council-effectively defeating the motion to keep Harvard under the IC's auspices. The president's vote is only called for to create or break a tie.

"I think it's in everyones' best interests to take some time off from each other," Gusmorino said of the IC.

The close vote sparked a half-hour debate over parliamentary procedure that included a ruling over whether former council president Fentrice D. Driskell `01 could vote despite missing more than enough meetings to be expelled from the council.