Gelfand publicized the proposed amendments on his Facebook page and inspired about 10 people—“Ten times the number of people who have ever attended [a student government meeting],” Gelfand said—to protest the amendments with him and his running mate, second year law student Jordan B. Roberts, at the meeting the following day.

All amendments were voted down.

Following the meeting Shah told Gefand that there were no vindictive motivations behind the amendments.

“Upon discussion in the student government meeting, however, it became clear (and I agree) that there are better ways to deal with transition outside of the constitutional realm, particularly given that Matt Gelfand intends to rephrase the Constitution anyway,” Shah wrote in an email. “Student government is glad that this important concern could be resolved through open conversation with incoming leadership.”

LOOKING FORWARD

Though Gelfand’s presidency does not officially begin until April 1, he said that he is already laying the groundwork for a new constitution.

Gelfand said that next week he plans to send a survey to the student body to gauge student opinion about potential changes to the constitution and will likely publish the results, depending on the amount of feedback he receives.

Gelfand will also solicit applications from students who wish to serve on his board of directors, with the condition that they will resign when Gelfand does.

In the next four to six weeks, Gelfand said he will roll out a draft of the constitution so that it can be voted on by student government and then ratified by the student body before commencement. The student body never ratified the current constitution.

Though Gelfand plans to resign by commencement, he said that he would remain in the role after graduation—which is permitted by the current constitution—if the new constitution is not in place by May.

Gelfand was awarded a fellowship to work in the general counsel’s office of New York University next year. After, Gelfand said he plans to work as an in-house legal counsel for a non-profit, or on the business side of a non-profit charter school that may be launched by one of his close friends.

Gelfand said he hopes that in the future student government will be less dependent on the Dean of Students office, since its current close ties prevent student government officials from challenging the administration.

Administrators have expressed support for a fully independent student government, according to Gelfand.

In addition, he said that he would like to support the many student groups and student journals on campus that were fostered by former Dean of the Law School and now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

“I am so glad I am at Harvard Law, rather than a place, even like some of our very close peer schools, where you can’t really participate on the journals as a 1L, and where there’s not a whole lot outside of class to do,” Gelfand said. “I am eternally grateful that that was not my experience and I think that most important of all is making sure that continues.”

—Staff writer Juliet R. Bailin can be reached at jbailin@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: Sept. 23

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Rachna Shah, who ran for president of the Harvard Law School student government, sent an email during her campaign to the entire student body. In fact, she sent that email to her 79 sectionmates and asked them to forward it widely. In addition, the article incorrectly stated that Shah called meetings with Law School Dean of Students Ellen M. Cosgrove during the campaign. In fact, though she attended meetings, she did not request them.