College/Year: Berkeley ’04

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Major: undeclared

“Really, it’s more than soap,” Ted Wittenstein ’04 says of his experience on the Freshman College Council.

Having spent the past year serving as a Berkeley College representative on the FCC and an associate on the Yale College Council, Wittenstein hopes to bring his experience, which has included leading the charge to get soap in Old Campus bathrooms, to the YCC vice presidency.

Wittenstein lists among his plans, as he says, many initiatives besides soap. He hopes to address specific issues such as lowering section sizes and increasing student representation on standing committees, as well as changing the role of vice president and the relationship of the YCC to the student body as a whole.

“For the last few years the vice president has been purely administrative,” Wittenstein said. “That’s something I hope to change. The vice president has to have a bigger job on issues being addressed.”

Wittenstein said a strong council is especially necessary in what he predicts will be a tumultuous upcoming year.

“Next year I feel there will be a lot of issues that will affect the student body more than in the recent past,” Wittenstein said. “There’s financial aid reform, a possible graduate students’ strike and on a more physical level, soap in bathrooms. If there’s not uniform support or at least knowledge of the issues on campus, the student body won’t be influential in decision making.”

— Arielle Levin Becker