"It'll be a tough fight," she admits, "especially since there are some administrators who don't believe Harvard should subsidize student life."

She also says that first-years' responses to questions about alcohol may also be surprising, and may lend support to her contention that Harvard needs to invest in more social alternatives that do not involve alcohol.

Some council members, however, aren't convinced that the questions on alcohol won't change anything.

"The drinking questions will be used to show the administration that there is too much drinking on campus so they have to crack down harder on bringing alcohol into the dorms and parties," council member John I. Nevin '01 wrote on the council's open e-mail list.

Darling says the council will have trouble deciphering the results, in part because the survey is general rather than specific.

"We're going to see that there is a general concern in a number of different areas," Darling says. "But I doubt that it's going to help the council pick which ones it's going to address."

Driskell says Darling's criticism is valid, but she wonders where opponents like Darling and Shumsky were when the census questions were being drafted.