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• 1 2018-03-06T21:00:00-05:00 Understanding the Inner Workings & Relevancy 1 A look at the inner workings of the council & understanding how the organization runs. It also explains how each component of the UC is related to the rest of the student body. image_header 2018-04-24T13:32:59-04:00

  During the beginning of every fall and spring semester, the Undergraduate Council holds elections for representatives that make up Harvard's student government. Each election is local to its house and yard for nomination and voting processes. The term is for a year, and during the Spring semester, if any seats have been opened, there are midterm elections for those seats.
  
  The Harvard Undergraduate Council is organized into several committees and an executive cabinet to run all of the various initiatives and advocacy work on behalf of Harvard students. Committees meet once a week to work on specific initiatives and the general council (all 51 members) meet Sunday evening to vote on legislation and be updated on what is going on. Meetings on Sunday evening can go anywhere from two to four hours depending on the legislation and debate for any given week.

  Education Committee

  The Education Committee shall represent undergraduate interests in official University policies and priorities pertaining to education. This committee will work to ensure the academic needs of the students within the official context of the College in both its central and adjunct institutions. The committee shall also be responsible for the annual administration of the Levenson and Marquand awards.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Peer-to-peer guide for first-year students
  • Education Secondary at the College
  • Levenson, Marquand, and Dingman Awards
  • Gender in the Classroom
  • Textbook Accessibility

   

  Student Relations Committee

  The Student Relations Committee shall ensure communication between the Council, student body, alumni, and public and make sure that student views are represented in the work of the Council. The Committee shall interact with campus and other media, operate the electronic and other communications of the Council, and collaborate with student leaders with an interest in Council affairs.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Publicity with all other student leaders
  • Bi-Semesterly UC Town Halls
  • UC Weekly Update email to all students
  • UC Alumni Network

   

  Student Initiatives Committee

  The Student Initiatives Committee aims to improve student life and community by providing new initiatives and services to the student body, and by providing funding and guidance to Harvard students with College-related initiatives and programming.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Club 1636 (Partnering with local businesses to throw free food events)
  • Dollar Movie Nights
  • Collaborations with other event planning bodies (CEB, FYSC, etc.)
    • Regurgitator Event

   

  Student Life Committee

  The Student Life Committee shall advocate on behalf of undergraduates and work with administrators to improve all aspects of students’ residential experience at Harvard College.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Subsidizing Bikes for Low-Income Students in the Quad
  • Mental Health Matters Week
  • Adjusting Shuttle Schedule Times
  • Integrated Charlie Card HUID
  • Sexual Assault Prevention on my.harvard

   

  First-Year Class Committee

  The First-Year Class Committee serves first-year students and create events and tangible changes to improve upon the lives of students in the yard. $10,000 should be earmarked with the goal towards capital improvements and intermediate range programming.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Laundry in Matthews
  • Table Numbers in Annenberg
  • Coffee Machine in Thayer
  • Game Tables in Several Dorms (Wigg, Canaday, etc.)
  • Freshman Week (“Health Week,” “We Care Week,” etc.)

   

  Financial Committee

  The Finance Committee shall improve student life on campus by providing the financial resources to support officially recognized student organizations and their activities. By enabling student groups, the Committee will also encourage new student activities and social and infrastructural development. The Finance Committee’s budget comes from student activities fee money, and in the fiscal year of 2017-2018 is $295,000. The Undergraduate Council voted to allocate $6,000 more to the Financial Committee budget due to very heavy cuts happening.

   

  Project Examples:

  • All student organization funding done weekly
  • Mandatory Sexual Assault Prevention Training Module

   

  Rules Committee

  The Rules committee will meet regularly to generate and review potential changes to the Constitution and Bylaws. Only the Rules Committee may docket proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws. In Fall of 2017, the Rules Committee was granted the power of approving the recognition of new student groups at the College.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Approving new student groups at the College
  • Revising and reviewing the UC Constitution

   

  Historian

  The duties of the UC Historian include running historical investigation of the UC by cataloging all articles published about the UC, compiling information about relevant past UC initiatives and reports, interviewing former UC Officers and members about projects they led, overseeing the maintenance of the historical sections of the UC website, liaising with the Harvard University Archives and presenting a report at the end of every semester containing:

  • Links and text of every published article written about the UC
  • All minutes, agendas, pieces of legislation from the semester
  • UC financial records from the Treasurer
  • Annual/semesterly reports from the President, Vice President, and Committee Chairs
  • Semesterly reports of the Caucuses

   

  Project Examples:

  • Utilizing Confluence to preserve institutional data

  
  Parliamentarian

  The duties of the Parliamentarian shall include clarifying parliamentary procedure upon request, taking minutes at Executive Board meetings, keeping a portfolio of all Constitution and Bylaws amendments passed by the full council, and compiling updated copies of the Constitution and Bylaws before the end of his or her term to be made available to the Council and public.

   

  Project Examples:

  • Keeping order at UC general meetings

   

  Student Faculty Committees

  • Standing Committee on General Education
  • Standing Committee on Athletics
  • Standing Committee on the Library
  • UC Student Dining Committee
  • Committee on Undergraduate Education
  • Committee on Student Life
  • Education Policy Committee
  • Standing Committee on Arts and Humanities
  • Standing Committee on Social Science
  • Standing Committee on Science
  • Harvard University Health Services
  • Harvard University Information Technology

  
  So how did I get involved with all of this? Please continue on to read the Story of Me!