University of Virginia Library

Council To Meet With Visitors

Efforts Of Hickman Kill
Council Motion For Censure

By Don Kessler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

In a special Student Council meeting
held yesterday afternoon, the Student
Council was informed by Acting President
of the University Frank Hereford
that if the Council requested attendance
at the Board of Visitors meeting scheduled
for today, Student Council delegates
would be invited to attend.

This 'invitation' came after a meeting
between Council President Bud Ogle and
Mr. Hereford Wednesday where Mr.
Hereford told Mr. Ogle that Frank W.
Rogers, Rector of the Board of Visitors,
had informed him that the meeting's
agenda was too crowded to fit in a
meeting with Council's officers.

The exclusion of Student Council
representation at the Board's meeting
occurred after what Mr. Hereford had
stated as an unfortunate misunderstanding.

Mr. Hereford had explained Wednesday
that in inviting the Student Council
delegates to the meeting, he had asked for
a response to the invitation.

Reply Never Sent

Mr. Ogle had admitted Wednesday
that he had never replied to the invitation
because he was under the assumption that since
President Shannon had regularly invited the
Student Council's President and Vice President
to the Board meetings, that they were always
expected.

Mr. Ogle added that in the minutes of a
Student Council meeting sent to the Board, a
motion dealing with letters to the Board had
indicated the desire of the Council President
and Vice President to attend the meeting.

The Student Council meeting was called
yesterday to discuss what the response of the
Council should be to the exclusion of its
President and Vice President from the Board
meeting.

The first motion called for Council approval
of a letter from Mr. Ogle to the Board of
Visitors. In that letter, Mr. Ogle reviewed the
'misunderstanding' and confusion causing the
exclusion of Student Council delegates.

He also expressed his disappointment over
the situation and over the lack of efforts to
improve student-Board communication.

The conclusion of the letter read in part,
that "A terrible grievance against the Student
Council and student body because of personalities
and misunderstandings can prevent the
student body's elected representatives from
addressing the University's governing board on
matters of major import. Despite the Council's
best and sustained intentions to improve
communication we are not even allowed the
opportunity to convey our constituents' concerns
in open discussion."

Ron A. Hickman

The letter ended with an invitation to the
Board to meet with the Council at a special
meeting.

The motion to approve the letter was
unanimously passed by Council.

A motion was then made by Ron Cass of the
College calling for Council to ask the other
students invited by Mr. Rogers and Mr.
Hereford to the Board meeting not to attend
the meeting unless delegates were invited from
the Student Council. The motion also called for
the other students invited to the meeting to
publicly give their reasons why they would not
attend that meeting.

Four Invitations Given

The four other students invited to the Board
of Visitors meeting were Whitt Clement,
Chairman of the Honor Committee; Ralph Feil,
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Charles
Hite, Publisher of The Cavalier Daily, and
Robert Cullen, Editor of The Cavalier Daily.

An objection to the motion arose as to
whether the Board of Visitors might take the
refusal of students to attend the meeting as a
sign of immaturity. The objection also queried
whether the refusal would accomplish improvement
of student-Board communications.

'Nothing To Lose'

In answer to this objection, Mr. Cass stated
that "at the point we are at now, we have
nothing to lose. We have submitted dozens of
schemes for better communication ... and this
refusal to deal with the Board of Visitors on the
present terms would not be immature. The
President and the Board of Visitors have taken
away all of the other alternatives.

"The Board of Visitors has said it meets and
has contact with students. If other students go
to the Board meeting, the Board can still say it
has meetings with students. But if they don't
go, then they can't say there were meetings
with students and that there was student
representation at the meeting."

Only Legal Voice

This comment followed one by Tom
Gardner, representative from the College, that
"last year, we were told that the Student
Council was the only legal voice of student
opinion. Now it seems we're being told that the
Honor Committee is that voice. The point is
that the students through their representatives
should be talking to the Board."

Mr. Cass' motion was then passed by a
majority vote of Council.

Mr. Cass then moved that due to "the Board
of Visitors' indications that there is a need for
some visible demonstration of student feeling
prior to the Board's action on certain matters
of student concern," that the Student Council
should personally deliver to the Board a list of
matters that have been subject to much student
thought and discussion.

The motion also called for a show of
'student feelings' today and tomorrow at the
Board meetings, in support of student representation
at the meeting and for improved efforts
to provide "equal educational opportunities."

During the discussion on Mr. Cass' motion,
Ron Hickman of the Architecture School,
entered the meeting and reported that Mr.
Hereford had just informed him that if the
Student Council presently requested that Mr.
Ogle and Mr. Hurdle, Vice-President of Council,
be invited to today's Board meeting, that an
invitation would be forthcoming.

A motion was then made to request such an
invitation and was passed by majority vote. Mr.
Ogle noted that this action by the Council
killed the previous motion to ask the other
students invited to the Board meeting to refuse
to attend the meeting unless Council delegates
were invited.

Calls For Support

Mr. Cass' second motion to call for visible
support for student representation in the
meeting and for improved efforts for equal
educational opportunities was then put to a
vote. With Mr. Cass noting that although Mr.
Ogle and Mr. Hurdle had been "invited" to
today's meeting, more work was necessary to
improve communications with the Board, the
Council passed his motion.

Previous List

Mr. Ogle then asked the Council if they
wished to add any issues to the list that he
would present to the Board through Mr. Cass'
motion. The Council agreed that the list made
up previously by Council would suffice.
Included in that list are such issues as a black
studies course, black enrollment, coeducation,
and student control of the activities fee.

To Present Issues

Mr. Ogle further reminded the Council that
he and Mr. Hurdle would follow the already
existing Council decision not to discuss any
matters with the Board until full student
representation and not just attendance was
decided upon by the Board.

This would not, however, stop Mr. Ogle and
Mr. Hurdle from presenting the list of issues to
the Board for the Board's interest and
information.

Council then decided that certain Council
members would meet at 12:30 today in front
of Pavilion VIII where the Board is meeting and
encouraged students to also meet there to show
'visible support' for student representation at
the Board meetings.