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The Undergraduate Council passed legislation Sunday endorsing a petition calling on Harvard administrators and the Universityâs Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute to âdenounce the detention and repressionâ of protesters in India under Prime Minister Narendra D. Modiâs administration. The act, sponsored by Ivy Yard Representative Tarina K. Ahuja â24, passed by a vote of 22-0-4. Tens of thousands of Indian farmers have gathered for more than three months in New Delhi to protest new agriculture laws that they say undermine their livelihoods, according to NPR. The laws are currently on hold, but the government has cracked down on the protests with internet censorship and arrests.
The Undergraduate Council voted to endorse a pair of statements during its Sunday night meeting â one supporting a petition to grant tenure to Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy Cornel R. West â74, and another to condemn statements made by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer. The first piece of legislation demands the University âreopen pathways for Professor Westâs tenure and further commit to advancing racial justice in substantive ways.â West recently threatened to leave Harvard for the second time after he said the University dismissed his request to be considered for tenure. He held Harvardâs highest faculty rank, University Professor, before leaving Harvard in 2002 following a high-profile spat with then-University president Lawrence H. âLarryâ Summers. West returned as a Professor of the Practice in 2017, a position that lacks tenure.
The Undergraduate Council endorsed a statement calling on all Ivy League institutions to divest from fossil fuels at a Sunday meeting. Sponsored by all eight Ivy League student body presidents, the statement calls on the universities to commit to “climate-conscious investments” and cease their investment in fossil fuel companies by 2025. The statement said the Ivy League universities are among the “most powerful and privileged institutions in the world,” citing their collective endowment of $135 billion and their control of roughly 25 percent of all American university endowment funds. Their collective endowments grant them both “social influence” and a “responsibility” to combat the climate crisis, according to the statement.
The Undergraduate Council voted on Sunday to restore its summer storage program and to petition for the removal of the Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Servicesâ recent $25 fee for last-minute cancellations and missed appointments. The first piece of legislation renewed its summer storage program with Five Star Movers for the 2021 year to financially assist up to 400 College students, allocating $32,000 in funding. Five thousand dollars will come from the UCâs own funds and the remaining $27,000 will come from remaining storage funds, faculty deans, and students benefiting from the program. In 2019, the UCâs summer storage program accommodated up to 500 College students. In 2020, the College partnered with Olympia Moving and Storage to assist students with their rapid move-outs in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Undergraduate Council passed legislation to release a statement in favor of the abolishment of Harvard's add-drop period course change fee during a Sunday meeting. The legislation calls for a statement to be issued calling on the University to remove the fee owed by students who change their courses after the third Monday of the semester. The fee requires students to pay $10 for each class added or dropped from their schedules after this deadline. âFor whatever reason, Harvard College charges students a fee to add, drop, or change courses after the third Monday of each semester,â the statement reads. âThe imposition of this fee serves as an unnecessary financial barrier that prevents many Harvard students from taking full advantage of the course add/drop period.â
Harvardâs Undergraduate Council reduced the maximum allocation per student under its Career Opportunity Fund to $200 due to higher demand from students than anticipated, according to a UC Finance Committee statement. Finance Committee Chair Daniella M. Berrospi â24 created the Career Opportunity Fund to provide first-generation, low-income students with the resources to pay for the expenses of internships â primarily clothing â and other external projects. The program was absorbed into the funding for Wintersession â the period marking the last 10 days of winter break â to consolidate applications for the different program offerings and simplify the grant distribution process. According to Eliot House Representative Rukmini âMiniâ Ganesh â22, the UC increased the Wintersession funding from $10,000 to $30,000 to better satisfy student demand. Of this $30,000, roughly half went towards the Career Opportunity Fund.