The Ivy Council's membership shrank from the Ancient Eight to a selective seven last week when Harvard student government leaders passed a resolution to withdraw their Undergraduate Council from the independent association of Ivy League student governments.
The Harvard resolution, passed last Monday, leveled numerous criticisms at IVC, declaring its spring 2005 conference unproductive, blasting Yale representatives unprepared and decrying some financial expenses as unmerited.
IVC, a non-profit organization comprised of student leaders from the Ivy League schools, hosts two conferences each year for student governments to exchange ideas and vote on statements related to issues of national concern.
Harvard, the only school to drop out of IVC since the organization formed in 1993, is bowing out for the second time. The university pulled its delegates in 2001 and only sent them back to conferences on a provisional basis last spring.
"Anything's possible -- little pink unicorns could start flying through the air, but unless there are some major institutional changes to the way Ivy Council works, I don't foresee Harvard coming back in the near future," said Harvard senior Jason Lurie, who co-sponsored the legislation pulling Harvard out of IVC.
Lurie said Harvard dropped out of the group in 2001 because IVC focused on political activism, while Harvard's student government was more interested in student services.
"The big problem with Ivy Council as we see it is that many of the other schools don't take it seriously," Lurie said, after attending his first conference in April.
The Harvard resolution made two separate references to the Yale delegation, criticizing it for not being "well-versed in the policies and practices of Yale University." According to the legislation, Yale only brought two delegates to the spring conference.
"Inasmuch as we're in Ivy Council in the first place to get information from a handful of schools and one of them wasn't there, that speaks negatively to the ability of Ivy Council to be beneficial to the undergraduates of the college," Lurie said.
Newly-appointed Yale head delegate Wells O'Byrne, a sophomore, said he could understand why Harvard's representatives were annoyed.
"I'm sure they're definitely justified for being frustrated with that," Lurie said.
"However, I don't see why they need to take Ivy Council so seriously. I mean, they don't need to send ten people -- they could send a few delegates."
O'Byrne said the Yale College Council's selection process for IVC delegates was "kind of a last minute thing, and we didn't really have anybody going."
Harvard selects its delegates through a campus-wide interview process, Lurie said.
Yale junior Raghav Chopra served as YCC's head delegate and said he brought three students with him to the spring conference.
"Quantity is not quality by any means," Chopra said, adding that he thought criticisms of Yale's delegates in the Harvard resolution were "very irrelevant" and used as "sort of an alibi" for dropping out.
"We're pretty confident that Harvard will see the value of Ivy Council and in due time, restore its involvement," Chopra said.
Harvard freshman Matthew Greenfield, who would have been Harvard's head delegate had its group not been dissolved, was one of the students on Harvard's Undergraduate Council who opposed the withdrawal.
"I think it represents a tremendous arrogance in the Undergraduate Council," Greenfield said. "I think that to say that the spirit of the Ivy Council and the potential of the Ivy Council is something of which we do not want to be a part is not just a big mistake, but a big failure on all of our parts."
Greenfield said Lurie had been planning to find an escape route for Harvard's student government for for over a year.
"He was on a mission and I guess he accomplished that mission," Greenfield said. "Jason is, and anyone on the [Harvard Undergraduate Council] will tell you, he's a self-declared contrarian. He just likes to oppose things, often for the sake of fiscal responsibility."
Ivy Council President Michelle Fernandes, a Cornell junior, said Harvard's exit, which reflected frustration with the 2004-2005 leadership, does not change her organization's mission.
"It's a very strong organization and the reasons for Harvard's departure is a very complicated thing, but Harvard has had a strange relationship with the rest of the Ivy Council for many years," Fernandes said.
Fernandes said many of Harvard's grievances stemmed from problems with the previous Ivy Council president, Jen Choi of the University of Pennsylvania. Fernandes said she thinks the organization needs to be more efficient and productive, and that its officers need to be held more accountable.
IVC's new leadership, elected in April, tried to prevent Harvard from leaving, but had a hard time convincing the resolution sponsors to stay, Fernandes said.
"I have utmost respect for the Harvard delegation," Fernandes said, adding that Harvard "will hopefully attend conferences next year."
