One bill Rawlins supported, a measure to affirm “that California strawberry workers should be given access to bathrooms and safe drinking water in the field, health insurance, a work atmosphere free from sexual harassment, a living wage, and reasonable job security,” passed the council by a vote of 38-7.

The bill’s goal was to persuade Harvard University Dining Services not to buy fruit from companies sponsoring abusive labor practices.

“It’s just a simple gesture to urge Harvard Dining Services to support a movement to really make some people’s lives a lot better,” Rawlins said at the time. “Anytime we can make even a small difference, that’s important.”

The three-year activist trend started by Hyman, who served as president for a year before being popularly elected for the office in 1996, was interrupted by the reign of two prominent conservative presidents—Stewart and Seton—both of whom pledged to change the activist focus of the council.

Running in 1998, Stewart tried to frame the election as a battle between two opposing visions of the council, calling the election a “conflict” between “those who think the purpose of the [council] is to pursue a political agenda and those who think it is to pursue student interest.”

But despite the mandate Stewart saw in her victory, the change wasn’t permanent, and Fentrice D. Driskell ’01 took over after Seton and did not limit the council’s agenda to only student services.

Driskell’s tenure, however, is remembered mostly for blunders and divisiveness, including the impeachment scandal of her vice president, John A. Burton ’01.

Driskell campaigned hard the next year for the election of Stephen N. Smith ’02, one of the founders of PSLM and a member of a number of community service groups.

Smith has a history of confronting the University about its policies regarding workers’ right and sweatshop labor.

“I’m not afraid to put my head on the line for issues like these,” Smith said during his campaign. “It’s important to make our voices heard when we can.”

Deemed the frontrunner early in the race against eventual victor Gusmorino, Smith stumbled down the stretch, however, and lost crucial support from other council members.

That campaign, observers say, may have been the last gasp of the liberal activist tradition.

And even Smith, Barkley says, may not have been the activist some of his predecessors were.

“Even Steve talked about a balance,” Barkley says.

Now, few vestiges of a progressive activist contingent remain on the council, and Lee and Fernandez are not likely to allow it to reemerge—at least in its old form.