The Cavalier daily :: Friday, October 31, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

In a special meeting Wednesday night,
D. Alan Williams, Dean of Student
Affairs, told the dormitory counselors
and the First-year Council representatives
that the First-year Council Constitution
had never been approved by the President
of the University and that due to this
fact, the new parietal hours approved by
the Council were not valid.

However, in response to a formal
request by the students, Mr. Williams and
the Provost yesterday approved the
parietal hours already passed by the
First-year Council.

Mr. Williams explained that there were
two issues at hand. The first of these
issues was that the "constitution of a
first-year council had never been submitted
to me for approval by the
President. Last spring, a lot of meetings were
held and one 'trial constitution' was handed to
me but never actually submitted to me for my
recommendation for approval by the President."

"Then this year, a vote was taken in the
first-year dormitories on a constitution for a
first-year council," continued Mr. Williams.
"This was not the same constitution that had
been given to me last spring. After this vote, I
understood that the Student Council had
voiced its support of the constitution and I
then expected the constitution to be submitted
to me to be presented to the President. This
was not done, however, and the next thing I
knew, first-year representatives had been
elected by the first-year students living in the
dormitories and new parietal hours had been
established by those representatives."

A First-year Council constitution was
approved by the first-year dormitories October
8 with over 95% of the first-year students
approving of it. The vote was taken under the
assumption of many counselors, however, that
it had already been approved by the President
and only needed Student Council recognition.

Two Sections Missing

Mr. Williams' claim that the "constitution"
approved by the students was not the same one
handed him last spring rests on the inclusion of
two sections in the powers of the First-Year
Council. The first section approved by the
students states that the Council has the right to
control parietal rules in the dormitories and
that the Director of Housing has no control or
veto over these rules. The section states that
only the Student Council has the right to
approve or disapprove of the Council's
decisions in this area.

The second section of the constitution states
that the Director of Housing does have control
over rules concerning the terms and conditions
of the first-year dormitories.

The constitution Mr. Williams claimed was
handed to him last spring did not include these
sections.

Bruce Wine, Chairman of Counselors, who
participated last year as a Senior Counselor in
the meeting on the constitution with Chester
Titus, Director of Housing, stated last night
that "the first-year council constitution
submitted to the students this year was given to
us with Mr. Titus' blessings."

The First-year Council constitution must
now be brought before the Acting Director of
Housing, Ralph Main, for his approval and then
to Mr. Williams' for his review and then to the
Provost, Frank Hereford, who is acting for the
President, who is on leave in England doing
research.

Parietal Hours

The second issue dealt with by Mr.
Williams was that of parietal hours. The
First-year Council, in Its second meeting,
charged the parietal hours so that girls would be
allowed in the first-year dormitories from 11
a.m. Fridays until 8 p.m. Sundays. This issue
then went before the Student Council which
passed a motion that it would give full
authority for parietal hours to the First-year
Council.

Since Mr. Williams claimed that the
First-year Council Constitution had never been
approved by the President, however, the
Council could not decide upon parietal hours.
But Mr. Williams added that the new parietal
hours could still be approved for the first-year
dormitories.

"The same procedure used last year to
change the parietal hours could again be used,"
said Mr. Williams. "This would entail the
submitting of the new parietal hours to me for
my recommendation to the President."

A motion was then submitted and passed
unanimously by the group to request the
approval of the parietal hours by the Provost on
the basis that the students had voted for
complete parietal hours on weekends in a
referendum earlier this month.

A letter of request was then sent to Mr.
Williams Wednesday night and in a letter
yesterday to Bruce Wine, Mr. Williams said that
he had recommended the request for new
parietal hours for this academic session to the
Provost and that the Provost had approved the
parietal house originally passed by the First-year
Council.