At a crossroads, YCC confronts its image

MELANIE SCHOENBERG/YH

The Yale College Council (YCC) has been busy lately. In less than 48 hours, Rusted Root will take the stage on Cross Campus to cap off Spring Fling, the culmination of months of hard work and planning by the YCC. But Spring Fling arrives in the wake of the recent YCC election, in which only 33 percent of the student body voted, a significant decrease from last year's 46 percent turnout.

The election, which featured far fewer candidates than in past years--only 11 candidates ran, 10 of whom were YCC representatives--has fueled debate over whether the council is in touch with student concerns. And with the recent controversy over the YCC's resolution to condemn United Nations sanctions against Iraq, the council as an institution has come under fire. YCC President-elect Jamie Ponsoldt, MC '01, put the council's problem simply: "I think the top priority for the YCC is a complete image over-haul," he said.

One step forward...

JULIA TIERNAN/YH President Zach Kaufman, SY '00 (standing, center), and President-elect Jamie Ponsoldt, MC '01 (standing, far right), have big goals for the YCC. At the top of Ponsoldt's agenda is revamping the council's image.

Ponsoldt may be right to demand a facelift. Despite the YCC's accomplishments this year, its image has suffered. At the beginning of April, the YCC announced that its proposal for a new performance space, located in the old Yale Bookstore annex, had been approved by the Administration. Last October, the YCC organized the first-ever Fall Fest. The YCC has also brought students the much-publicized two-ply toilet paper, surveyed students on Spring Fling bands, and convinced the Administration to give more money to Spring Fling and the Undergraduate Organization Funding Committee (UOFC).

Still, the council's decision on Thurs., Apr. 15, to attach its name to a New York Times advertisement condemning the UN sanctions against Iraq drew criticism from the student body and accusations that the YCC was overstepping its bounds. YCC President Zach Kaufman, SY '00, blamed the media for the YCC's image crisis. "Although the campus publications and the YCC have had a good relationship this year, often some of the campus publications are irresponsibly and unnecessarily hypercritical of the YCC," he said.

But Kaufman's explanation may not satisfy everyone. Soren Bech, SM '99, a former YCC representative and chair of the YCC communications committee, said the YCC itself is to blame for its image, especially because of incidents like the Iraq resolution. "It's ridiculous," he said. "It's such a waste of time and completely out of the scope of the YCC. If they're going to be dealing with an international issue, it has to be educationally related, like financial aid. It has to be related to student concerns."

Despite every step forward the YCC takes, controversies like the Iraq resolution always seem to push the council two steps back. "For every bad thing we do, we have to make up for it with about 30 good things, or else students won't forgive us," YCC Representative Andrew Quigg, JE '01, said.

Quigg was so opposed to the debate over the resolution that he drew up a petition that explained the resolution and asked students to sign if "they believed that the YCC shouldn't be considering political issues that don't concern the student body." When 98 students signed it in the span of a few hours, "I took that as an emphatic sign that we shouldn't be debating the resolution," he said.

At the YCC meeting, however, Quigg's petition was "basically ignored." Jim DiTullio, JE '01, YCC representative and chair of the Spring Fling committee, agreed with Quigg. "We reached a new low point with this Iraq resolution," DiTullio said. "I don't see any reason to be addressing this issue. And I don't think Saddam Hussein will listen when he hears that the YCC condemns the sanctions."

Despite internal disagreement, the resolution passed. "An outrageous number of [YCC representatives] abstained, because they didn't

know enough about the issue," DiTullio said. Still, when people read the Times and see the YCC's name on the ad, they may assume that the YCC's position represents not only the council but also the entire Yale student body--even if that's not the case.

In 1998, with 46 percent of undergraduates voting, winners received more votes and a greater percentage of votes:
1998 Winner	Vote total	Percentage of votes	Overall support*
Zach Kaufman, president	1143	49.1%	21.6%
Fawzi Jumean, vice president	989	44.6%	18.7%
Hilary Marston, secretary	1192	58.1%	22.5%
Melissa Milazzo, treasurer	779	36.7%	14.7%
Adiya Dixon, UOFC chair	1170	58.9%	22.1%
In 1999, 33 percent of undergraduates voted, and the winners also received a smaller percentage of the overall votes:
1998 Winner	Vote total	Percentage of votes	Overall support*
Jamie Ponsoldt, president	653	36.0%	12.4%
Addisu Demissie, vice president	1007	55.5%	19.2%
Laura McGevna, secretary	506	27.9%	9.6%
Libby Smiley, treasurer	730	40.3%	13.9%
Jennifer Lee, UOFC chair	745	41.1%	14.2%
*Total votes received divided by total number of undergraduates.

By the students, for the students

Many critics of the YCC pointed to the Iraq resolution as a clear indicator that the council is out of touch with its constituents--that it fails to represent student opinion accurately or adequately. "When I heard about the resolution, I was like, `What the hell? What does the YCC have to do with Iraq?'" Anna Moore, MC '01, said.

Article Two of the YCC Constitution states that the purpose of the organization is, among other things, "to be the advocate of the student body in issues that affect or concern students." But several YCC insiders say the council does not always fulfull this purpose.

One problem they cited is a fair number of college representatives simply not keeping in touch with constituents. "Some people were lazy and were just doing [YCC] as a résumé-builder," Bech said of his time as a YCC representative. Quigg confirmed that this problem still plagues the council. "A lot of the representatives are out of touch with people in their colleges and the student body in general," he said.

DiTullio said that as part of his YCC responsibilities, he had to go to six or seven residential college council meetings. "Before going, I told [the college's YCC representatives] to be there," he said. "There were no YCC reps at the meetings. That's when it hit me that there was a problem." Former YCC representative and issues committee chair Robert Levels, ES '99, agreed. "The YCC would be a lot more effective if the representatives made a real, concerted effort to talk to students in their college," he said.

Clearly, despite all the time Kaufman and the executive officers put in, the YCC has a problem at the grassroots level. "Berkeley College is a prime example," DiTullio said. "Two seats opened up at various points of the year, and we couldn't fill the damn seats. No one in the college would run. We're having trouble finding reps just to come to YCC meetings; forget about getting them to walk around the dining halls once a month. It's really sad."

Ponsoldt suggested certain measures should be taken to ensure that representatives are in touch with their constituency. "Every month or so, there should be a meeting where the representative talks and all the students are invited to come outside the dining hall and express their concerns," he suggested. Kaufman noted that such measures have been taken in the past, with very little success. He did, however, admit that "the YCC can definitely improve in that area. Representatives should take more of an active role in openly discussing things with students in their college."

To stay in touch with the student body, DiTullio believes that practical-mindedness is necessary. "Adding a student to the [Yale] Corporation--that's not going to happen," DiTullio said of a goal that has appeared on many YCC candidates' election platforms, including Ponsoldt's. "Getting soap in the bathrooms--that's a battle that can be fought and won. What I've seen lately is the death of pragmatism." After a year on the inside of the organization, DiTullio had had enough. "My decision and the decision of many other reps not to run for re-election is representative of the rampant disillusionment in the YCC today," he explained.

Taking their agenda to the top

Bech says one of the reasons he left the YCC was that the Administration doesn't pay attention to student government. "I got a bit bored with trying to deal with administrators
that didn't want to listen to students," he said. "I didn't feel
the YCC had any type of power with the
Administration."

Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg disagreed with Bech's assessment. "That's totally untrue," she said. "We take them very seriously. It's a question of the definition of power. No one has any unilateral power around here."

Still, Bech said that when he was a representative, he and others petitioned the Administration to open the Vanderbilt Gate on Old Campus. "We gave the Administration information from the police, from students, from merchants on the streets," he said. "[Dean Trachtenberg] said there was a security concern, but the police said that there wasn't. The merchants wanted it, and the students wanted it."

Kaufman said that to expect the YCC to have a great deal of influence over such policy decisions is foolish. "The YCC is not a government," he said. "We're a lobbying group on behalf of Yale students to the Administration." Ponsoldt agreed. "The YCC has the power to influence," he said. "The YCC would be deluding itself if it thought that it ultimately made the decisions regarding major Yale issues--the Administration does that."

But do administrators lend the YCC's proposals more weight than other groups', since it is the YCC's job to be a voice for the student body? "I think the Administration should give the YCC more weight than other groups, because other groups are more interest groups," UOFC Chair Adiya Dixon, BR '00, said. "What we do is represent everyone."

Administrators, however, gave differing assessments of the YCC's effectiveness in representing students. Trachtenberg refused to say whether she views the YCC as representative of Yalies. "They see themselves as representative of the student body," she said. "That is not to say that when another student organization comes with a specific problem that I don't take them seriously also."

Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68,
GRD '72, was similarly vague in his assessment of the YCC's role as the representatives of the student body. "I meet with almost any student that wants to meet with me," he said. "I'll hear a proposal from anybody.... If a proposal were a great idea you'd welcome it wherever it came from."

University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, however, agreed with Dixon. "I consider the YCC officers to be elected representatives of the entire Yale College student body, and I would tend to give their views greater weight than those of spokespersons for particular interest groups," he said.

The YCC needs the Administration's help to achieve its goals. But for now, students must cope with a YCC that has no guarantees from the powers-that-be.

Comparative politics

Other Ivy League schools have student governments which have seen their share of difficulty with both their school administrations and their student bodies. But the councils' results at other schools differ widely from the YCC's.

At Brown, the student government wields real influence with administrators. Like the YCC, Brown's Undergraduate Council of Students (UCS) tries to bring student concerns to the administration. But according to Judd Wishnow '00, Brown UCS president, the UCS enjoys a much greater say in the decision-making process than the YCC. "From what I've gathered in hearing about other schools, this is the one area where Brown really excels," Wishnow said. "The Administration is unbelievably accessible." He said the UCS might even have too much power, a problem the YCC can only dream of having: "The students' voice, some would argue, is too influential at Brown," he said.

At Harvard, the Undergraduate Council (UC) tries to serve a similar function as the YCC. "The UC has three main roles," UC President Noah Seton '00 said. "First, we advocate for changes in Harvard policies that we think would be beneficial for students here. Second, we give out a large amount of funding in the form of grants for student groups. Third, we run campus-wide events." Seton characterized the UC's relationship with administrators as "okay"; the UC seems to run into the same obstacles that the YCC does at Yale. "They listen on almost all issues, but on some issues they listen and say no; others they listen and say yes," he said. "We don't feel like we have final decision-making power."

The general student body at Harvard is "largely apathetic," Seton said. "They don't spend that much time thinking about us." As for debating political issues, Seton explained that while there has been "a recent attempt to `repoliticize' the UC," he nevertheless does not believe that political debates have any place in student government. "I will do my best to keep the council from dealing with issues like sanctions on Iraq," he said. "That just isn't what we're meant to be doing."

On the other end of the spectrum is the Columbia College Student Council (CCSC), which, according to Graham Lawrence '00, a CSCC member, rarely discusses issues with the administration. The council focuses instead on "programming" various campus events. Despite its lack of influence with the administration, Lawrence said the CCSC gets a lot done, and students are anything but apathetic. "Right now, we are in the middle of elections for next year, and you can't go anywhere on campus without seeing 50 different signs advocating different candidates," he said. "People are definitely not indifferent. I feel that students really care about who represents them and how they get represented."

Bridging the gap

Ponsoldt and next year's YCC will have their work cut out for them. With declining student interest in the YCC--as evidenced by the low vote totals this year--the council will have to bridge the gap between the YCC and the students it tries to represent. "There's a rift between the YCC and the student body," Cathy Devore, BK '00, said. "But I don't think that if the YCC did a better job of communicating with students, the Administration would give them any more respect." Ponsoldt wants next year's YCC to address that concern. "The YCC should work toward creating a relationship with the student body and involving the student body more," he said.

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