CORRECTION APPENDED

Adding a dose of campus politics to the inaugural ceremony Friday, Undergraduate Council President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 fired criticism at University administrators and called for a “new era of student citizenship” in his speech in Tercentenary Theatre.

Petersen used his brief minutes on stage to stress students’ struggles to become active decision-makers in the face of “limitations from above.”

“This process of decisions made behind closed doors, this disempowerment of students, this denial of citizenship must end now!” Petersen said, his voice rising with each phrase. His declaration was greeted with scattered hoots and applause.

After the ceremony, Faust said she had enjoyed Petersen’s speech.

“I thought he spoke his mind,” she said as alums and notables crowded around, eager to shake her hand. “Was that creative unrulinesss in action? Perhaps. I thought he was great.”

But the mood onstage appeared less receptive.

“Nobody onstage was clapping,” said UC Secretary Kyle A. Krahel ’08, who was sitting on stage.

While Petersen left unmentioned the party grants which had sparked a standoff between University Hall and students, he criticized the role students have been granted in decision-making.

First, mimicking Faust’s words about her mother’s statement that “this is a man’s world,” Petersen said, “Well, like President Faust, I too believe in progress and I refuse to accept that this is a ‘faculty and administrator’s world.’”

Eschewing his characteristic jeans and T-shirt in favor of a gray suit, Petersen touched on students’ struggles to become active decision makers “in spite of limitations from above.”

Breaking the tension, he turned to Faust and said: “Let me tell you, as one president to another, that change does not come easily to these hallowed grounds.”

Petersen did not experience the technical difficulties faced in 2001 by former UC President Paul A. Gusmarino ’02, who saw the microphone go dead while delivering the student address at Lawrence H. Summers’ installation ceremony. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

But where Gusmarino recalled getting “positive feedback from all sides” after delivering his speech, Petersen and some of his UC subordinates seemed less sure that his message had garnered a positive response. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

“It was tense,” said UC Representative Andrea R. Flores ’10 of the atmosphere onstage during Petersen’s speech. Flores, along with five others from the UC and scores of University notables, took in the ceremony from behind the podium atop the Memorial Church steps.

Enjoying a few drinks in the aftermath of the installation proceedings, the UC President said he did not believe his speech had been too controversial.

“I was very deferential to Faust,” he said. “I didn’t put it to the University too hard.”

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The October 15, 2007 article "Petersen's Fiery Speech Makes for Uncomfortable Moment on Stage" misspelled the name of former UC President Paul A. Gusmorino '02.