“More often than not it was used to stall than it was to really protect the rights of the minority,” Nicolais says. “We’ve had a lot of contentious issues.”

Lurie attributes some of the council’s anger with Mahan’s leadership to the president’s personal involvement with many of the council’s major debates.

“Rohit was a judge and he...got rid of the lawyers. He was always very careful to look impartial and stay impartial,” Lurie says. “Matt is one of the lawyers...He’s an advocate for issues for one side or another.”

Mahan’s support for contentious viewpoints and the constant parliamentary maneuvering his term has seen have, in a stark change from Chopra’s administration, forced the council to deal publicly with its unending political squabbles.

“You just don’t really realize—all of a sudden you’re responsible for all of the...relationship issues and the bickering and the public face of the UC,” Mahan says of his role as president.

THE VERY PUBLIC FACE

While Mahan’s council has been productive and visible both in its advocacy before the administration and in its implementation of student programs, the council’s public airing of its dirty laundry this semester has put Mahan in the public eye in much more of a political light than he hoped at his inauguration. Mahan concedes that he has not avoided the spotlight, but says that his efforts to have the cabinet help him lead the council have been effective.

“What I really meant by that was the fact that I wanted to spread ownership in the organization and I wanted to get more people involved...and I think that is something that we’ve succeeded at but in subtle ways,” he says.

Although Mahan has included a coterie of other representatives in the council leadership this semester, spreading responsibility did not ultimately equate to leaving the spotlight himself—or to forgetting about his public appearance.

“At the beginning he said he wasn’t going to be one of those presidents who spent his time agonizing over how The Crimson was going to portray him and I think the converse has shown to be the case,” Chadbourne says. “I think he’s just trying to focus attention towards the hard work and the noble aims of himself and the council members.”

Mahan has openly admitted that Crimson coverage of council matters affected his decisions. The entire controversy surrounding his decision to phase in the termbill increase could potentially have been avoided had he not based his judgments on anticipated Crimson coverage.

“We told the campus because we didn’t want the Crimson to paint this as a big loss for the UC or something ridiculous like that if we said that a two-year phase made sense in a closed door meeting and then that was the public result,” Mahan wrote to UC-general in defense of deciding to propose a phased-in fee increase after consultation with only a few council members.

But if Mahan continues to take controversial and public stances while consulting only his top cabinet officials, his second semester as president could be as frustrating as his first.

“The reality is that the buck does stop at you,” Mahan says. “To some extent you can’t avoid being out front and being a visible person.”

—Staff writer Joshua D. Gottlieb can be reached at jdgottl@fas.harvard.edu.