CORRECTION APPENDED

The Undergraduate Council (UC) voted yesterday to use $1,000 to purchase a Web service from a firm co-founded by Zachary A. Corker ’05, who is also employed by University Hall in planning the renovation of Loker Commons.

The service provided by GOOSE Networks, a Seattle-based technology company, will match up students carpooling to and from Logan International Airport.

Called “UC rides,” the service is scheduled to be launched on the UC Web site before spring break, and will allow students to text-message a number to find out if other Harvard students want to share a cab to or from campus.

Although the debate on the issue only lasted for a few minutes before the proposal was approved, it faced vehement opposition from Mather House Representative Matthew R. Greenfield ’08.

“Aside from the idea of text messages and the company’s cool logo, this does nothing that the UC could not set up for free through a Web site or creating another open list where people can post messages,” Greenfield said.

But Jon T. Staff V ’10 said he thought an outside company is necessary to provide student services that the UC is not capable of furnishing.

“We are not good at providing shuttles, we are not good at providing newspapers, we are not good at providing Web sites,” Staff said.

Staff shared a personal story about having to spend a night in Logan airport to catch a 6 a.m. flight because the subway to the airport did not provide service early in the morning and financial concerns prevented him from taking a taxi by himself.

“I think the majority of the council agreed that the service would be very useful,” said UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08. “People are always asking the UC to serve students more, and I think that this is one of the ways that we are doing so.” Petersen said.

The first hour of the 90-minute UC session was dominated by heated debates over the Financial Committee’s (FiCom) grants packages. Representatives from the Harvard College Democrats and the Harvard Republican Club were present to lobby against the UC’s decision to fund less than a third of the grant requested for the 2007 Bipartisan Paintball Brawl. After discussion over the role of precedents in granting UC funding, and whether or not the UC should fund entertainment activities, the council voted to grant the full amount requested by the organizers of the event.

“FiCom has a tough process balancing the need for satisfying student expectations for grant funding while maintaining fiscal responsibility,” Petersen said after the meeting. He added that FiCom wants to be “more transparent” to student groups about what grants will and will not be funded.

In other UC business, representatives reconvened the student advisory committee for the search for the new dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). The 10 members, only one of whom is on the UC, will discuss priorities for the next dean of FAS as well as recommend specific candidates for the job. They will make their recommendations to the Faculty advisory committee for the search as well as to President-elect Drew G. Faust.

—Staff writer Nan Ni can be reached at nni@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The March 12 news article "UC To Pay $1K for Carpool Site" misstated the class year of Zachary A. Corker '04.