Last month, Sujean S. Lee ’03 appeared on national television in Korea after winning a landslide election for the Undergraduate Council presidency.

As her first semester at the council’s helm begins, some council members say she must return her attention to policy initiatives that better student life if she hopes to match the success of her predecessor, Paul A. Gusmorino ’02.

Gusmorino’s council, with Lee as its vice-president, focused on providing students with tangible services and negotiating with the College’s administration for policy changes that affect everyday student life.

Under Gusmorino’s leadership, the council’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC) fought successfully for later party hours and extended keycard access in Houses. The council also organized the first-annual Fallfest and continued services such as UCBooks and UCBoxes.

During this time, the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) sold out two successive concerts.

Lee says that while she will continue many of Gusmorino’s battles and add a number of student services to her own list of accomplishments, she will also try to use the council to express the views of undergraduates on “political or controversial” issues to the administration.

Despite the deviation from Gusmorino’s goals, council members say that Lee’s extensive experience on the council, and that of her vice-president, immediate past treasurer Anne M. Fernandez ’03, should help her transition smoothly into her new role as council chief executive.

A Legacy of Services

Lee and Fernandez campaigned on a platform that proposed similar student service initiatives.

Lee, who co-founded the HCC, says one of her goals is to hold concerts in venues as large as Harvard Stadium or the Bright Hockey Center, a task Gusmorino deems “a real challenge.”

Lee says holding a concert in Harvard Stadium is difficult because it could bring up to 30,000 people to the stadium, causing security and traffic complications.

“The main problem is that the stadium has such a tremendous capacity that, for concerts at the stadium, we would have to ensure extremely extremely huge security measures and take into account traffic flow,” she says. “Just the size of the project is so huge that the administration is rightfully cautious.”

She says a concert at the Bright Hockey Center would be “more manageable” because of its smaller 5,000 person capacity size.

Justin A. Barkley ’02, former treasurer of the council, notes that the HCC must also be careful to choose bands that appeal to all students.

“When you start selecting bands, you have to make sure that you’re not selecting bands that appeal to only one segment,” he says.Uptown Girl