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Council Questions Rigid Admissions

By Barry Levine
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

In last night's Student Council meeting,
described as "an unusually short
meeting" by the new Council President,
James Roebuck, Council passed by voice
vote a motion to ask Dean of Admissions
Ernest Ern "to consider each applicant
for admission to the University on his
own merits, not necessarily only on
entrance requirements."

The motion, made by Council member
Judy Wellman, was intended to insure
consideration of those who, "because of
one reason or another, were unable to
meet the course requirements, particularly
the language requirement, but are
otherwise capable of satisfactory work at
the University."

Sam Robinson, representative from
the Medical School, expressed concern
that such action would admit those who would
find themselves incapable of meeting the
demands of their courses in the University.

He suggested the option of two-year
community colleges for those not meeting the
initial entrance requirements.

In reply, Councilman Tom Breslin said that
"community colleges in Virginia haven't quite
gotten off the ground. We're asking Dean Ern
to make the choice wider." He noted that the
Medical School is currently undertaking a
special program for medical training of
individuals who might otherwise not be
admitted under regular admissions. Another
Council member quickly noted such medical
students are trained only after special education
in summer school.

Miss Wellman extended her motion to
specifically include those who received the
Virginia High School Equivalency Certificate
through correspondence courses rather than a
regular diploma by the successful completion of
high school. The motion also expressed
appreciation of Dean Ern's efforts for black
recruitment thus far, and urged him to continue
such efforts and to give individual attention in
the future to the consideration and attention to
low-income whites.

In their meeting on January 13, Student
Council acted to retain John Lowe as attorney
in the injunction suit concerning the allocation
of student funds to the Students for a
Democratic Society, in order that he may
investigate possible measures for an out-of-court
settlement.

Mr. Lowe, acting on the advice of Council,
will request the postponement of the response
date for the injunction notice until mid- or late
February. As an alternative measure to a court
fight, Council stated it will agree to allocate the
S.D.S. request for $49.50 out of funds other
than the Student Activities fee, in exchange for
which the complainants and their attorney will
seek to cancel their injunction in toto, or at
least to the extent that the injunction will only
apply so long as S.D.S. is labeled a political
organization by the S.A.C. or the Board of
Visitors.