“To me, those things are so fundamentally important, I was taken aback when they were questioned,” he said.

But SAC Vice Chair Rohit Chopra ’04 said that while he supported the intentions behind the resolution, he felt it was drafted in a way that alienated some council members.

“I certainly agreed with the overarching thrust of the resolution,” Chopra said, “but there might have been problems because it was not in report form but a resolution calling the University to do something.”

According to Chopra, SAC members largely felt the resolution did not provide enough background information, which may have explained the lack of support for the measure.

An earlier vote to postpone deliberations on the resolution to get more information narrowly failed, Chopra said.

“I think for the first time in quite a while, the political viewpoint of the members [of the SAC] may have affected the outcome,” Chopra said.

Beach said the resolution will probably be amended to exclude the portion that currently calls on the University to disobey the USA Patriot Act.

The resolution’s advocates plan to submit a revised version of the resolution to the graduate schools’ student councils and may continue to pursue the issue with the council, according to Beach.

As of yet, Harvard has not been asked to provide comprehensive lists of names or records of foreign students, according to Senior Director of Federal Relations Kevin Casey.

Earlier this year, the Kennedy School of Government released records containing confidential information about one of its graduates after it was subpoenaed by the FBI.

“In terms of what I know, there was only perhaps one or two requests for records that I’m aware of at Harvard University,” Casey said.

While the Federal Rights and Privacy Act requires written consent from the student before education records are released to a third party, consent is not required if a university receives a subpoena for students records.