The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, December 6, 1967 :: University of Virginia Library

Completely reversing its stance,
the Student Council last night
voted to present the new constitution
for student ratification in
next week's elections.

At the same time, the Council
empowered President Edward Ford
to write a letter to The Cavalier
Daily citing the reasons for its
previous rejection of the constitution.

Proposed As Amendment

Using the vehicle of the present
constitution's Article 9, which says
"Amendments to this constitution
may be proposed by a petition
of 5 per cent of the student body,"
a group of students had obtained
502 signatures demanding that the
constitution be included on the
ballot in upcoming elections.

The Council had voted 15-1 on
November 21 to drop the constitution
from the ballot in favor
of certain amendments.

How Ratified

Forced to include the constitution
on the ballots, the Council
was then faced with determining
how it could be ratified.

Jeff Gates opened the debate by
saying "The petition uses Article
9, so we should abide by that
policy of amendment and use the
present system," which requires a
majority with 60 per cent of the
student body voting.

On Own Basis

Jim Gay replied that "If the
students want to vote on this,
we should let them vote on its
own basis. The only way they
could present this was to do it
as an amendment, but the proposed
constitution needs only a
two-thirds vote to ratify it."

It was then moved by Rick
Evans to submit the proposal in
its own form, needing only two-thirds
to ratify it. His motion was
defeated by a 6-9 vote.

As Amendment

Parker Brown followed by
moving to submit it as an amendment.
He argued that "We should
follow the guidelines as set in the
constitution under whose authority
we are now," since that is how
the petition was presented."

In Own Light

"We have to present this to the
students in its own light," replied
Bill Moses. "What if it is ratified
as an amendment? It then becomes
tacked on to the present constitution
which in its body it
supersedes."

Dave Wicks then moved to call
the question, but was defeated.

Following a short adjournment,
the motion to present the constitution
as an amendment was withdrawn
in favor of a resolution
which said: "In view of the fact
that we have the required number
of signatures and lack an efficient
process for referendum, we present
the new constitution for the Student
Council to the students for
ratification."

A vote was taken, and the resolution
passed without opposition.

As presented by Council, the
constitution may now be ratified
with only two-thirds of those voting
in favor of it.

Reasons For Opposing

Dave Wicks submitted the
motion to present the Council's
reason for opposition to the constitution,
saying "We had valid
reasons for voting to drop these
ideas, so we should make them
known."

Mr. Brown added that "We
voted it down, so we should make
it clear that we do not endorse
it for passage."

The motion to write the letter
stating the Council's reasons for
opposition was passed unanimously.

Social Club

In other business, a representative
of the Alderman Road Committee
appeared before the Council
to request permission to
organize a social club in the Alderman
dorms to provide social activities
such a as combo parties for
the residents, and to elect officers
to begin the club.

The permission was granted with
no opposition.