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Thirteen students hailing from nine upperclassmen houses were elected to Harvard's Undergraduate Council Friday in the body's midterm elections.
Tensions around the elections flared in Quincy House, where UC Finance Chair Daniella M. Berrospi ’24 survived a recall vote that came following accusations of financial mismanagement. An email petition circulated throughout the House garnered the support of ten percent of residents, initiating the recall vote.
Berrospi held onto her seat after fewer than the required two-thirds of voters cast ballots in favor of her removal. Roughly 47 percent of Quincy voters voted no confidence.
The night before voting closed, flyers calling for Berrospi’s removal were posted across the house. Many were later torn down and piled on the doorstep of UC President Michael Y. Cheng ’22, who also lives in Quincy. An email sent to Quincy students by the house's resident dean and faculty deans condemned the incident.
“It has come to our attention that some of our members may not be treating our community with the level of respect that we expect,” the email said.
Cheng responded to the email demanding an apology.
The exchange came just one week after another incident on the Quincy House email list in which residents sparred over the University’s Covid-19 response. Patrick I. Adolphus ’22 — an outspoken critic of Covid-19 restrictions whose email sparked the conflict — won a seat in the UC after garnering 55.2 percent of first choice votes.
Adolphus will serve as a Quincy House representative, alongside Berrospi.
He said he believes the support for his candidacy indicates a dissatisfaction among students with the school’s current Covid-19 policies
“I definitely think that it was a referendum on the policies regarding restricting social behavior and stuff like that,” Adolphus said. “That was my only real message throughout the candidacy.”
In Winthrop House, UC Secretary General Nicholas J. Brennan ’23, who ran for president of the body in the fall, lost to Trey Sullivan ’24. In Leverett House, two representatives — Chris T. Cantwell '22 and Spencer W. Glassman '24 — were elected after an additional seat opened up due to the removal of a member who had an insufficient attendance record.
Another familiar name returned to the ballot in the latest round of elections. After losing in his bid for UC president last fall, Ivor K. Zimmerman ’23 recycled his previous platform in a successful campaign for Kirkland House representative.
During their bid for president and vice president, Zimmerman and his then-running mate Joy Y. Lin ’23 had called the Council “incompetent” and argued that the UC had violated its constitution and committed tax fraud by failing to properly register for tax-exempt status. Then-Council President Noah A. Harris ’22 and Vice President Jenny Y. Gan ’22 denied the allegations.
“It's not about uncovering — like, I don't care who did it or why. I just care that it's fixed,” Zimmerman said.
Standing by his campaign messaging, he also took aim at new goals, such as healing interpersonal conflict amongst UC members.
“Clearly the plans I had to reform the institution aren't going to be put in as quickly as I'd like — or maybe at all,” Zimmerman said. “But I feel that there's still ways to accomplish a lot of the change that needs to happen.”
The newly elected Council members are as follows:
Adams House
Oluwatobi Ariyo
Nick Gu
Cabot House
Yeseo Brooke Livingston
Dunster House
Quan Narula
Eliot House
Bobby Current
Ryan McCarthy
Kirkland House
Ivor Zimmerman
Arjun Bhattarai
Leverett House
Chris Cantwell
Spencer Glassman
Lowell House
David Zhang
Quincy House
Patrick Adolphus
Winthrop House
Trey Sullivan
