University of Virginia Library

New Coalition For Council
Formed Despite Protests

By RICHARD JONES

Photo By Richard Bryant

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All Books Will Be On Sale From 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. Today In Newcomb Hall Ballroom At Discount To Students

Several members of Student Council
and the President of the Residential
Council have formed a coalition for the
upcoming Council elections.

Four of the five candidates named by
the December Coalition are Andy Potler,
a fourth yearman, Barbara Savage, a
second year woman, Ed Wilson, a third
yearman, and Rod Singleton, a second
yearman. Each of these candidates is a
College student. The fifth member of the
coalition's ticket has not been selected.

"Collusion And Coercion"

In the Student Council meeting last
Tuesday night, Paul DiPasquale charged
the December Coalition of "collusion
with The Cavalier Daily and coercion of
other potential candidates."

The charge of collusion with The
Cavalier Daily centered on the assertion
that personnel from The Cavalier Daily
were deeply involved in the selection of
the candidates, and that an arrangement
had been made so that the candidates of
the coalition would receive detailed
campaign coverage from The Cavalier
Daily.

In respect to the second charge of
coercion Mary Ann McDermott,
representative from the graduate school
of Arts and Science, said that by Mr.
Collier's support of a particular slate of
candidates, he was encouraging other
students not to run.

In response, Mr. Collier said that
"Peter Shea, editor of The Cavalier Daily,
was contacted to find his opinion of some
people who were running on Coalition
ticket." Mr. Kerr added that "as soon as
the coalition became structured, people
from The Cavalier Daily were not
involved."

Mr. Shea said that, "Mr. DiPasquale's
charge of collusion between The Cavalier
Daily and the candidates of the December
Coalition is totally unfounded. Mr.
Collier approached a number of staff
members of the newspaper and asked
them to recommend possible candidates
for Student Council in the upcoming
election to run on a ticket which he and
other students hoped to form."

He added that, "he later asked my
opinion about the persons the party's
organizers had chosen: I personally knew
only one of the top seven candidates.
Thus, as Mr. DiPasquale admitted in
making the charge, he doesn't know what
he is talking about."

Mr. Shea stated that, "those who
charge that a deal has been made with
one party or the other concerning news
coverage during the campaign are simply
misinformed. The newspaper has
attempted in the past and will continue in
the future to cover the news at the
University fairly."

He added that, "in any election with
10 to 15 candidates, we can guarantee
only that those candidates who make
news through the proposals they make
and the issues they raise will have their
campaigns covered on the news pages of
the newspaper. If the editors of The
Cavalier Daily choose to support any
particular candidates, they will do so by
endorsing them on the editorial page."

Raising False Charges

Mr. Shea asserted that, "there are
those who undoubtedly will attempt to
gain politically by raising false charges
during the campaign. Unless they can
come up with more solid evidence than
the flimsy rumors on which these latest
charges are based, those who do so must
be viewed as frauds, grasping futilely at
anything in their attempts to win
election."

Mr. Collier also said that, 'the coalition
was not meant to discourage other
candidates from running." He added that
"if anyone is interested in running, he
would be happy to talk to them."

According to Mr. Kerr, "the coalition
will disband after the election."

The organizers of the coalition include
Tom Collier, President of the Student
Council, Chris Kerr, a Student Council
representative. Peter Gillespie.
vice-president of the Council, and Morgan
Kelly, president of the Residential
Council.

According to Mr. Kerr, "the whole
point of the coalition is to remove some
of the obstacles faced in an election." He
added that, "we wanted to make sure
students who are leaders in various
sectors of the University would not be
prohibited by expense from running."

"They are a true reflection of the
constituency of the University and by so
being, they can legitimize the actions of
Council," he said.