Smith has spearheaded the implementation of the council’s online events calendar, served as co-chair of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered Supporters’ Alliance and currently serves as vice president of the Black Students Association. He counts a discourse with Summers regarding Faculty diversity and his role in forming a committee of student leaders on sexual violence as key accomplishments.

The Issues

Each of the tickets has proposed a platform and adopted a variety of issues—many of them common to multiple tickets—as central planks.

Improving social life for students has become a central policy issue for the candidates.

Smith-Chapa lists on its platform a few priorities for social life: expanding Crimson Cash to multiple restaurants in the Square, implementing Universal Keycard Access, seeking digital cable installation in dorms and securing social space when, in 2013, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences acquires the property currently used by the Inn at Harvard.

Darst-Simon have also pushed for Crimson Cash expansion, saying they hope to introduce the program at Pinnochio’s and Tommy’s. In addition, they say they hope to bring kegs back to the Harvard-Yale Game, increase communication between House Committees and the council, work for better athletic facilities and improve the Concert Commission-run venues.

Chopra-Stannard-Friel have similarly made better Concert Commission events a priority. They’ve also said they want to create a program subsidizing parties in students’ rooms, have class-wide events to “fill the gap between the Freshman Formal and the Senior Booze Cruise” and start inexpensive movie nights in the Science Center. In council meetings, Chopra has said he hopes to extend keycard access hours even further.

Beyond social life, candidates are also taking strong stands on academic matters—especially in light of the current curricular review.

In much of their campaign material, the first promise by Darst-Simon is that they “will not let shopping period be taken away.” The ticket has also said it hopes to extend the deadline by which students must choose concentrations, increase student involvement in the “core review” and evaluate all advising in the College.

Similarly, increased student input in the curricular review comprises a plank for Chopra and Stannard-Friel. The running-mates say other academic issues they plan to put on their agenda include replacing sourcebooks with free online sourcebooks, extending library hours, increasing financial aid and creating an official protocol for students to propose new courses and concentrations.

The Smith-Chapa ticket has said it will seek to improve financial aid by pushing for a reduced summer work requirement, and also desires to increase student representation in University decisions.

Lurie-Misono said they will try to increase the frequency of shuttle service, provide more funding for student groups, and make the arts more prominent on campus through added subsidies by the council.

Maats wrote in an e-mail that his campaign will stand for “the same five or six issues that candidates have been promising for the last ten or twenty years: better teaching, UKA [universal keycard access], cable, later party hours and building programs that would give us a better MAC [Malkin Athletic Center] and a students center.”

He also said that he wants to “show a sense of humor, that we’re different and that we’re willing to take some risks.”

Smith-Chapa has also underscored the need for increased student group funding. According to the campaign’s platform, the increased funding could be accomplished through a “more responsible UC budget,” matching funds from the University and business sponsorships. Offices for student groups could also be created, Smith and Chapa have said, in the MAC and other locations.