Correction Appended

Former President George H. W. Bush once said, “Competence makes the trains run on time but doesn’t know where they’re going.” With Johnny Bowman and Eric Hysen, Harvard students have the opportunity to elect an Undergraduate Council president and vice president who not only possess an unparalleled ability to make the trains (or Quad shuttles) run on time but also present a compelling vision of the UC’s role in student advocacy during a difficult time for the university and its budget. As the presidents of the Harvard Republican Club and the Harvard College Democrats, we rarely agree on anything during an election season, but both of us believe that Johnny and Eric are the best choice to lead the UC next year.

The next UC administration will face one major issue: budget cuts. As the Faculty of Arts and Sciences prepares to cut another $110 million from its budget for the next two years, Harvard students need a passionate and dedicated representative to make sure that the entire Harvard community has a say in Harvard’s future, and we need a UC that can continue to improve student life without relying on increased funding from the administration.

Johnny and Eric have been leaders in the fight for an inclusive and transparent budget-cut process since the beginning. On the UC, Eric helped organize the “We Are Harvard” rally last May, which helped convince Harvard deans to reverse cuts in shuttle service to the Quad. As the chair of the Budget Cuts Task Force, Johnny is continuing the work he did last year as a member of the Student Labor Action Movement. When the decline in Harvard’s endowment was first announced, Johnny dedicated himself to becoming the most knowledgeable student on campus on the topic of Harvard’s endowment and budget, realizing that top-down budget cuts would hurt students and workers alike. He organized the Responsible Endowment Conference and proposed the Idea Bank, which gave the Harvard community an unprecedented opportunity to share ideas for the second round of budget cuts. While SLAM’s activities are often controversial, Johnny’s work has demonstrated such a mastery of the issue that even the Harvard Republican Club endorsed his campaign. This record assures us that Johnny and Eric will be the most effective possible advocates for a stronger student voice in the second round of budget cuts.

However, fighting with the administration will not be enough to guarantee success for the next leaders of the UC. In a year when the UC’s agenda will be severely constrained by budget cuts, the UC must be able to move ahead with tangible measures that will improve student life. Both of us are particularly impressed by Johnny and Eric’s commitment to political activism and public service. With the 2010 midterm elections approaching, we especially appreciate their commitment to supporting student groups of every political persuasion who want to travel to competitive states like New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Johnny and Eric may be partisan in their own politics, but we have every confidence that they will be completely fair in using the UC’s resources to encourage students to get involved.

More broadly, Johnny and Eric are well versed and passionate advocates for student groups on campus—financial crisis or not. Eric’s experience as treasurer of the Dems gives him a thorough understanding of how important the UC is to the financial viability of Harvard student groups. Johnny, too, has demonstrated an impressive understanding of the UC Finance Committee. Intimate knowledge of the student group budgeting process is at the core of the UC’s relationship with student groups. We are confident that Johnny and Eric, as the only ticket with Finance Committee experience, are best equipped to manage this core function of the UC.

That knowledge doesn’t stop within the confines of the UC. In fact, Johnny has met with more Harvard administrators than any UC presidential candidate in our memory. Perhaps most importantly, Johnny and Eric have laid the groundwork for successful relationships with student groups so that they can hit the ground running as soon as their term begins. We believe that Johnny and Eric will be effective advocates for student groups not only as part of the UC budgeting process, but also with respect to Harvard’s administration as a whole. Effective interaction with the administration is an especially important attribute for student groups, as organizations across campus increasingly find themselves pursuing causes from preventing layoffs to reinstating ROTC that require administrative action.

Although we admire the accomplishments of all of the candidates in this race, we are convinced that Johnny Bowman and Eric Hysen are best prepared to call for a more inclusive budget cuts process and work with student groups to improve student life at Harvard. We urge students to vote for Johnny and Eric in this week’s election

Colin J. Motley ’10 is president of the Harvard Republican Club. Eva Z. Lam ’10 is president of the Harvard College Democrats.

CORRECTION: The November 17 Op-Ed "Bowman-Hysen for UC" should have identified Eva Z. Lam '10 as a staffer on the Bowman/Hysen campaign.