University of Virginia Library

Council Overrules Committee
To Grant Funds For Weekly

By Ira Steingold
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Hugh Antrim

Chairman of O&P Committee

The Student Council voted to
appropriate the Virginia Weekly $5.565
following a heated debate in a meeting
Tuesday night which lasted nearly five
hours.

The atmosphere resembled that of a
court of law as Tom Gardner, head of the
Virginia Weekly contingent, and Mike
Cohen, a member of the Organizations
and Publications Committee, exchanged
views on the merits of the newspaper.

The debate became heated at times
with several members of the
standing-room-only audience clapping
their approval over certain points brought out
by Mr. Gardner and his associates. Kevin
Mannix President of Student Council, was
forced to use his gavel several times during the
meeting to keep the audience as well as Council
members quiet.

Constitutional Right

Tom Gardner began his argument by
accusing the University of not allowing an
exchange of ideas and thus violating his
constitutional right of free speech. He argued
that The Cavalier Daily and other publications
funded by the University were presenting only
one view, that of a capitalistic society, and were
biased in their own way. Mr. Gardner
maintained that it was the University's
obligation to allow opposing views to be heard.

Mike Cohen contended that the Virginia
Weekly does not report the news objectively.
He said, "One cannot discern where facts begin,
and analysis begins."

Mr. Cohen defended the O&P's action of
refusing to allocate the newspaper the $7,130 it
requested on the grounds that the committee
had to follow guidelines established by the
Board of Visitors. Mr. Cohen produced a
clarification of the guidelines on the allocation
of student activities fees adopted by the
Student Activities Committee in June 1970.

A section of the revised statement reads.
"Propagandizing shall include any activity
whose purpose is to procure, or prevent, the
acceptance of any social, economic or political
theory as an operating principle of polity."

Left Wing

It continues saying, "propagandizing shall
not be interpreted to include engaging in
non-partisan analyses, study, or research or
making those results available to the public."
According to Mr. Cohen, the Virginia Weekly
does not adhere to these guidelines. He
concluded his argument by characterizing the
newspaper as having "a radical left wine line,"
which immediately drew a heated response
from the gallery.

Mr. Mannix then called for a roll call vote on
whether or not to accept a motion to uphold
the O&P's recommendation to cut off funds to
the Weekly. This motion was defeated by a vote
of thirteen to ten. A hand vote was then taken
to accept a substitute motion allocating the
newspaper $5,565. The motion carried.

A total of nine student organizations
appealed to Council Tuesday night. The
surprise of the evening was supplied by two
first-year women representing the Population
Fund Committee. The purpose of this
committee is to establish an abortion loan fund.
Anyone who is in need of an abortion but has
insufficient funding is eligible to apply for a
loan.

A debate began when a Council member
defended the O&P's recommendation of not
allocating them any money on the grounds that
the loans were against the morals of most
students at the University, and that most
students would have no need for the service.
Thus, the Council member concluded that the
loans would violate a student's rights.

Counter-arguments such as, observations that
times are changing and that 79 members of the
University community applied for abortion
help last year were presented. Another issue
arose concerning who would have to
these loans and when would they be It
was decided that in order to obtain a loan one
party must be a student and this student
repay the loan within one year's time
graduation, whichever comes last the
Population Control Committee was then
appropriated $2,000.

Appeals For Money

Other student organizations appealing for
more money were the Black Students for
freedom who asked for an extra $200 and got
it. The Virginia Journal of International Law
was not given extra money. The Law School
Admission Council was allocated $1,200.

Chip Grange representing Madison Hall
made a plea for $2.200 and received the
allotment. The Spectator, a literary magazine,
appealed for funds, however. Council refused to
appropriate any money. The Virginia Law
Weekly was also snubbed by Council. WUVA
was given an extra $800 to aid in the building
of a new transmitter.

All allocations made Tuesday night may be
appealed to the Student Activities Committee
no later than one week from today. Anyone
who is a member of the University community
may make an appeal whether or not he is a
member of the organization moved.