The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, March 14, 1968 :: University of Virginia Library

Responding to recent victories
of University Party candidates,
officers of the two fraternity-dominated
political caucuses
have decided to reduce the number
of their nominations for Student
Council.

In the past, Skull & Keys and
Sceptre Societies both nominated
five candidates for Council, but
this spring they will choose
three nominees a piece.

Consolidate Support

It was felt by Skull & Keys
president Robert Green, and his
Sceptre Society counterpart,
Lawrence Altaffer, that the caucuses
could better compete with
the independent-run University
Party if they consolidated their
support.

Mr. Green explained that indications
were that the University
Party candidates receive
block vote support from the
Alderman Road dorm residents
while caucus candidates get most
of their support from fraternity
men.

Party Victories

Until one year ago all College
members of the Council
came from the candidate slates
of the fraternity-dominated political
societies, Sceptre and Skull
& Keys.

Since that time nominees of
the newly organized and independent-run
University Party
have won major victories, with
the man polling the largest number
of votes coming from its
ranks in the two intervening
elections.

When asked about recent
conjecture within the fraternities
that the caucuses should merge
to present a united front against
independents, Mr. Altaffer said
this was out of the question for
the present.

He pointed out that such a
move would completely alienate
the independents from the caucus
system.

Rather than split the College
along independent - fraternity
lines, Mr. Altaffer hoped to integrate
the two elements into
the caucus system by easing
membership requirements for the
former.

He said a plan is being formulated
to eliminate petition requirements
for independents.
Under this plan a set proportion
of independents, corresponding
to that of fraternities, would
be allowed to participate in the
caucuses.

He blamed the present absence
of non-fraternity men in
the caucuses on the failure of
past officers of the societies to
publicize membership requirements
and encourage participation.

Mr. Green also ruled out the
possibility of a merger at this
time, saying that "It is a problem
of timing. By consolidating
now we would create a permanence
for the University Party
that it does not yet have."

He said "Much of the strength
and appeal of the University
Party lies in its machinery for
forming a platform and discussing
issues. Because they have
been successful they have attracted
a lot of people to attend
their meetings."

No Platform Plans

Questioned if Skull & Keys has
any plan to form a platform
committee, Mr. Green said no
and added that he personally felt
that votes should go to a man
and not a platform.

Mr. Altaffer concurred with
this opinion and went on to
point out that most of the University
Party's platform merely
listed old issues rather than state
new ones.

With their continued rapid
growth," Mr. Green said, "their
platform committee could get
bogged down and, I feel, unworkably
large."

Mr. Green also pointed out the
difficulties involved in nominating
candidates for the Honor and
Judiciary Committees.

Committee Candidates

He felt that the University
Party did not at present have
the proper candidates for these
committees and that, if merged,
the caucuses would not be able
to provide adequate choice for
the voters.