University of Virginia Library

Seniors Face November Vote
On Formal class Constitution

By Donn Kessler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

In an attempt to establish order in the
running of the senior class, the Student
Council Political Societies and Elections
Committee approved a class constitution
Wednesday night to be voted upon by the
members of the senior class on November
4 and 5.

If approved, the constitution would be
the first official charter in the history of
the graduating class.

Last year, Bill McManus,
Vice-President of the Senior Class of
1970, also drew up a proposed
constitution to be approved by the class.
That constitution, however, was never
voted upon by the degree applicants.

Various Revisions

To draft a new constitution, the
committee, which was headed by Buzzy
Waitzkin, a Council representative from the
College, made various revisions in the original
charter.

The most obvious change is in voting and in
officer candidate restrictions. Under Mr.
McManus' draft, each undergraduate school of
the University would have one class officer,
elected by the whole class at large. The person
receiving the largest number of votes would
have been President; second, Vice-President,
and so on down the list.

Under the constitution to be presented next
month, however, each officer except the
President will come from a specific school. The
Vice-President will be elected by a majority of
degree candidates in the Engineering School;
the Treasurer from the Commerce School, the
reporter will come from the College, and the
historian from the Architecture School.

Two Offices

In addition, the office of secretary has been
divided into two offices, recording secretary
and corresponding secretary. The two class
secretaries will be elected by degree candidates
from the Education and Nursing Schools
respectively.

The president of the class will be elected at
large by a vote of all undergraduate and
graduate degree candidates.

All of the officers must be elected by a
majority vote or a run-off would be held.

In commenting on these provisions, Mr.
Waitzkin stated that the limitation on
candidates by schools would eliminate the
problem of having any one school take most of
the offices. This could have been the case, he
indicated, as the College has the most number
of degree applicants and officer candidates
from that school could have taken more than
one office.

One Representative

As in Mr. McManus' draft, each graduate
school will have one class representative.
Instead of this representative being elected,
however, he will be selected by the President of
each graduate school.

The seven officers and four class
representatives will comprise an executive
board which will be responsible for all class
activities. Each member of the board will have
an equal vote in all decisions.

In listing the standing committees of the
class, the constitution proposed by Mr.
Waitzkin's committee says that a finance
committee shall recommend class expenditures
for authorization by the Executive Board. This
is a change from Mr. McManus' idea by which
the finance committee would authorize all
expenditures.

Requires Audit

In addition to this change in committee
functions, the by-laws of the constitution
require an audit of the financial records of the
class each spring by a fourth-year student in the
Commerce School.

The alumni committee function has also
been changed in the proposed constitution.
Under Mr. McManus' version, the committee
would have been responsible for recruiting class
members into the University Alumni
Association.

Under the new draft, the committee would
establish and maintain relations with the
Alumni Association.

According to the newly proposed
constitution, it would be up to the individual
class to decide if they desired to have any
referendums.

Photo by Rick Smith

Buzzy Waitzkin

Chairman Of Election Committee