YET COLUMBIA IS KING'S COLLEGE (via Mike Earl):

Classics Concentrators Espouse Outlandish Ideas: Eccentric outsiders campaign to abolish the UC and farm arable land (HELEN X. YANG, 12/08/08, Harvard Crimson)

[Roger G. Waite, the classics concentrator-cum-Undergraduate Council presidential candidate] arrived at the famously dubbed “Kremlin on the Charles” as a conservative from Chicago, Ill. He is heavily involved with the campus organization Harvard Right to Life, and the conservative publication The Harvard Salient.

As one of the many self-described outsider candidates in the 26-year history of the UC, Waite says that he was motivated into action by what he saw as the poor handling of last year’s party grant controversy.

“For years the administration had expressed concerns over the alcohol, but the UC did nothing to address it. So when [they] got rid of the party grant altogether, the UC created a mob-like hullabaloo,” he says, growing visibly animated for the first time in the interview. “I feel compelled [to run] by the circumstances.”

RETURNING TO TRADITION

The Waite-Petri campaign is adopting an age-old tradition of using their platform to advocate for the abolition of the Council. There is one caveat, however. “We’re going to invite a member of the House of Hapsburg to rule the student body indefinitely instead,” Waite says.

“I think that a member of the Royal Family would be in a much stronger position to negotiate with the administration and faculty,” he explains. “It’s much easier for Harvard to blow off a group of self-important undergrads than it is the House of Hapsburg.”

Digging into his jacket pocket, Waite presents a copy of “The Charter of 1650,” the document that established the mission and governing structure of the University.

“It says nothing of student governance and nothing about this nonsense of an Undergrad Council,” he says.

This plan is part of the campaign’s broader goal of returning Harvard to its “founding principles.”

Despite the fact that no American university has ever established a hereditary monarchy to rule over the student body, Waite says that this is certainly not an obstacle.

“Harvard is always on the forefront of change. We can set an example,” he says.

An example the Republic would do well to emulate.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 10, 2008 3:13 PM