University of Virginia Library

Change In Housing Committee
Suggested By Student Council

By Tom Adams
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Last night the Student Council
passed two motions dealing with
the Housing Committee and
University regulation of off-grounds
housing. The first of these
concerned the Off-Grounds
Housing Bureau's action warning
students in the middle of the year
that they might have to move out
of their apartments because certain
landlords will not comply with the
University's nondiscriminatory
regulations.

The second motion asked for a
restructuring of the Housing
Committee to be followed by an
investigation as to whether or not
the Housing Committee should be
able to regulate off-grounds housing
at all.

Gerald DeWitt presented a
motion which, after two
amendments, was passed reading as
follows: "that the Student Council
instruct Mr. Evans to dispatch a
letter to Mr. Chester Titus and
through him to the Housing
Committee and to the Off-Grounds
Housing Bureau expressing:

Dissatisfaction

"The Student Council's
dissatisfaction with the manner in
which Mr. Titus and the
Off-Grounds Housing Bureau
handled the procedure of approving
housing this year and especially the
timing of its efforts to enforce
compliance with ts
nondiscriminatory regulations
during the academic year:

"The Student Council's concern
over the possibility of students
being forced to find new housing in
the middle of the academic year,
especially during first semester
examinations."

Pieter Schenkkan then
presented his motion dealing with
housing, which passed
unanimously. It reads: "The
Student Council strongly urges
President Shannon to immediately
change the composition of the
Housing Committee to include as
many student members as
non-student members. Student
members are to be chosen by the
President of the Student Council
and subject to the approval by a
two-thirds majority, of the Student
Council.

We urge that this reconstituted
Housing Committee take up, at its
first meeting, the general question
of whether or not the University
should claim the right to regulate
off-grounds housing, other than to
require that such housing be open
to any University student.

"If the Housing Committee
finds in the negative, we ask it to
join us in appealing to the Board of
Visitors that they repudiate this
claim."

500 Women

In other business, Gordon
Calvert moved that the Student
Council give full support for
coeducation at the University. He
said in his motion that a goal of
500 females admitted to the college
by the 1970 session would not
seem unreasonable. His motion
passed with no dissenting votes.

Bud Ogle presented a motion
asking that females residing in
Albemarle County be allowed to
apply to the University for
admission in the 1969-70 session.
Jimmy Miller, chairman of the
coeducation committee of the
Virginia Council on Human
Relations at the University, told the
Council that many women who will
graduate from local high schools
this year would be unable to attend
college this year if they could not
live at home while attending a
university.

Inferior School

Walker Chandler, speaking in
favor of the motion, said he
thought it was ridiculous to have
woman from Albemarle County
"go 70 miles away to an inferior
school." He also noted that the
"administration could not use the
excuse of not having enough
housing for them." The motion
carried.

Early in the evening, Charles
Murdock presented a motion calling
for the Student Council to allow
first-year men to have cars at the
University. His motion did not ask
for the Traffic Control Committee
to consider it, but asked that the
Council itself, on its own authority,
grant parking stickers that it would
have printed up, to the first-year
men.

Revolutionary Government

George McMillan asked whether
the Student Council was becoming
a "revolutionary government" by
considering such a motion. "Are we
merely going to announce our
decisions from now on?" he asked.

Many attempts, some successful,
were made to amend the motion
and a substitute motion was
presented by Pieter Schenkkan
asking that any student be allowed
car privileges. Mr. Schenkkan
explained that his motion was
merely to find out whether the
Council wanted to become a
"revolutionary government." That
motion was tabled until the
meeting after Christmas vacation.

Mr. Evans reported on some
correspondence he had had with
President Shannon on the matter of
allowing a representative of the
Student Council to attend meetings
with the Board of Visitors.

According to Mr. Evans.
President Shannon informed him
that this decision constituted a
"major policy decision," and would
have to be made by the Board of
Visitors.