University of Virginia Library

Concerned With Radical Trend

Hickman Discusses Council's Role

By Tom Adams
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Photo by Richard Wright

Vice-President Jim Roebuck, Secretary Julia Spencer, and President Ron Hickman

Trio Above, Plus Treasurer Pat Saul Take Over Student Council Offices Next Week

"It's a real problem to find how
Council can be most effective."
Ron Hickman, the new President of
the Student Council said yesterday.

He explained he did not think
that there was a need for a
popularly elected President of the
Council. Rick Evans, retiring
president of Council said at
Tuesday night's meeting that there
was a great need, for the president
to be elected by the student body
rather than the members of the
Council.

Bureaucratic Problems

Mr. Hickman said that a
popularly elected president would
mean "a whole realm of problems
with bureaucracy." Some of these
problems, he said, would be those
of appointing people to positions
and the president being a
"figurehead," overshadowing the
other members of the Council.

"The president is not more
important than the other members
of Council," he said. "The
president should be a leader of the
Student Council, but not the
student body," he said.

Mr. Hickman said, "I ran on the
basis that I would be an
administrator and I will make every
attempt to execute what the
Council has voted for, even on
motions that I am not particularly
in agreement with."

He was concerned that so much
discussion is given to the "factions"
on the Council. He said that while
they do exist, the emphasis placed
on them often prevents the Council
from supporting fully many major
issues.

Enlargement Not Needed

Mr. Hickman said he did not
think enlarging the Council would
help to get more work done. He
said that more interest has to be
stimulated among the members and
more responsibility given to
members who have not been given
responsible positions.

Although he predicted, along
with George McMillan, that there
would be only a "one-vote
difference" between the
representatives on next semester's
Council and the present one, he
said that the impetus for a radical
manner in achieving our goals will
increase."

Concerned With Trend

He was concerned over that
trend because he did not think that
the "existing channels," [a phrase
which he did not like] had been
"explored to their full extent."

He said that he would try to
keep in close contact with the
administration to find out what
channels should be used to achieve
the Council's goals.

Still Don't Know

He cited as an example the
Council's attempt to give students
more control over life in the
dormitories. "We still haven't found
out who currently makes the rules
in the dormitories and who to deal
with to get them changed," he said.
He also said that the Student
Council sent proposals to the last
meeting of the Board of Visitors
that "shouldn't have gone."

He noted that as the powers of
the Council are now defined, the
councilmen have jurisdiction over
student organizations but not
students themselves." He said that
perhaps the Council ought to
assume greater responsibility in the
lives of students.

Rapport With Administration

Mr. Hickman said that due to
his dealings with the Student
Activities Committee while
chairman of the Organizations and
Publications Committee of the
Student Council he had developed a
certain "rapport" with
administration officials which he
hoped to continue "without
alienating them, if possible" to
achieve the goals of the Council.

At Tuesday's meeting of the
Council, Mr. Hickman, while he was
still chairman of the Organizations
and Publications Committee,
announced that because revenues
from student fees were not as great
as expected, a two per cent cut in
the allocations to student
organizations would have to be
made.

At The Same Meeting

At that same meeting, Jackson
Lears said that the open forum
discussion on University car
regulations that was scheduled for
yesterday evening has been
postponed for a month because it
was poor timing to have it just prior
to exams.

At the Council's meeting on
December 17, a bail fund was set
up for use by students of the
University charged with
misdemeanors or felonies, with a
maximum limit of $250.

Ball Money

Students charged with crimes
should try and contact either the
president of the Student Council,
or its treasurer if bail money is
needed. If neither of them can be
reached, the Dean of Women or the
Dean of Student Affairs may draw
from the fund, which contains
$500 appropriated from the
Student Activities Fund.

At the same meeting the
Council it was moved and passed
that Marshall Allen, president of
the Charlottesville Poor People's
Association be invited to discuss
charges of unequal hiring policies of
the University's Department of
Buildings and Grounds.