Gonzalez says that the wider range of committees encourages representatives to focus on work rather than politics.
Overall, UC representatives say that this year’s Council—which Flores calls a “completely different organization” from that of her freshman year—has been far more cohesive, productive, and apolitical than in previous years.
By halfway through the fall semester, they had already surpassed the amount of legislation passed by the previous Council in one semester. They had fought for the ethnic studies secondary, established new lines of student outreach, and made progress on projects such as J-Term and social grants.
But the Election Commission’s turmoil and McLeod’s controversial e-mail elicited confusion and, in some cases, derision toward the Council from the student body.
“Adams Schmooze was filled with people saying ‘overthrow the UC’ and ‘burn and pillage’—and rightfully so,” Rimalower says.
Many representatives feared the drama of the election had significantly damaged the UC’s reputation. Some were especially upset because they felt the events did not reflect the current Council, but were rather a product of former members who had been involved in the “partisan politics of last year,” according to Antunes.
“[UC members] were so upset that our work was going to be de-legitimized, that what students thought about the election was going to translate to what they thought of our work,” Flores says. “That was their biggest fear.”
REPAIRING THE UC’S IMAGE
Bowman, who was re-certified as the winning candidate by a vote of the Council the following week, says that the controversy surrounding the election has made it even more important for representatives to focus on their projects rather than dwell on past struggles to “repair the UC’s image.”
Antunes says Council members have made a conscious choice to put the fall’s events behind them.
“[The election] made us a much more cohesive body, because we all came together and voted to downplay the events and to move on,” he says. “What happened is an awkward cloud that still hangs over us, but we choose not to acknowledge it.”
Hysen says he believes this semester has been the UC’s most productive spring semester yet, with the introduction of new initiatives such as the men’s lacrosse tailgate and the student-initiated programming fund, as well as the passage of reforms to the EC in response to concerns about the election process.
The Council’s focus on achieving tangible change has helped it gain support among the student population, Hysen says.
According to a survey conducted by the Student Relations Committee to assess student opinion and the efficacy of the Council’s projects during the spring semester, 40 percent of students reported having a positive impression of the Council.
Though not all UC projects were successful this semester—the Council’s blog “UC Juicy” has only been updated three times since the beginning of March, for example—SRC Chair Ashley M. Fabrizio ’11 says she believes the Council’s high approval rate is an “accomplishment” for the UC considering the current administration’s rocky start.
“If we had asked that same question right in November, it would have probably been much more negative,” she says.
Ultimately, Bowman says he hopes his tenure will be defined by his achievements rather than its controversial start.
“People will respect or not respect the UC based on how much it gets done for students,” Bowman says. “I think the UC’s reputation is...on track to be better than it ever has been.”
—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.