University of Virginia Library

Shannon Tells
His Account
At Meeting

By GINGER FITZ

In a meeting with a group of students
Sunday, President Shannon indicated that
he was disappointed that Student
Council had not come up with a more
constructive approach to the issue of
expansion.

He stated that Council had perhaps
acted in bad faith in dismissing as too
little too late his charge to the Future of
the University Committee to consider all facets
of expansion instead of focusing exclusively on
academic considerations.

According to Pete Gillespie, who was present
at the meeting, Mr. Shannon said that Student
Council was responsible for some of the
problems of over crowding in traffic and
parking, housing and food services.

Mr. Shannon stated that Student Council's
success in giving second semester first-year
students the right to have a car makes the
parking problem worse. He suggested that this
provision which was partly designed to give the
first year students opportunity to go down the
road on weekends, was no longer as useful now
that the University is coeducational.

The students at the meeting replied that it
does not affect the first semester and that
first-yearmen should not have to bear an unfair
burden all year. They suggested that restrictions
should be spread fairly throughout the entire
University community; perhaps by raising the
requirements for a vehicle permit from a 2.0 to
a 2.2 grade-point average, and by not providing
parking places for faculty members who teach
fewer than a certain number of students.

According to Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Shannon
added that Student Council aggravated the
housing problem by opposing Lambeth field
dorms and by asking the administration to do
away with off-grounds housing regulations. The
students present then stated that they felt that
the Lambeth field project was ill conceived and
inappropriate for the University and that
students were forced to live in sub-standard
housing not through choice but by necessity.

In the area of food services, Mr. Shannon
reportedly pointed out that the Student
Council had objected to a proposal to require
first-yearmen to patronise food services,
thereby guaranteeing that new facilities would
be profitable. He commented that otherwise
providing new cafeterias would be too risky.
The students replied that in their opinion an
increase in quality would assure good business.

Those present at the meeting with Mr.
Shannon were Alan Barringer of the law school,
Tom Collier, president of the Student Council,
Pete Gillespie, Chris Kerr, Vice-President and
Provost David Shannon, William Elwood, and
Edwin Crawford, Vice-President of Student
Affairs.