University of Virginia Library

News Analysis

Coalition Purpose, Accomplishments Viewed

By Tom Jenks
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

After the February 14 - 15
meeting of the Board of Visitors
several student leaders at the
University came to realize for
themselves that many of the complaints
that the SDS and the SSOC
had been making about the Board
of Visitors and the racist complexion
of the University were all too
true. A moral indignation and a
feeling that it was high time to act
arose in these student leaders, and
out of this feeling the student
coalition was formed.

Originally, the student coalition
excluded the SDS-SSOC and was in
many ways an attempt to prevent
the campus radicals from carrying
the issues of the day. It was a
coalition of "responsible, elected
student leaders" who planned to
shed light on the University's
problems by going through the
proper channels, having orderly
assemblies, and making requests,
not demands.

The first actions of the student
coalition at its "coat and tie
demonstration" on Monday, February
17, was to amend the SDS's
four demands to the Board of
Visitors by rejecting the complaint
against William Potter and playing
down the cry against C. Stuart
Wheatley.

Pressure

In the ensuing days, the coalition
drew up its own 11 proposals,
held more rallies, held a motorcade,
and heightened the pressure on the
administration, the Board, Governor
Mills Godwin, and the state of
Virginia, and most importantly the
student body of the University not
only to take notice of the University's
problems but to act constructively
to bring about their
resolution.

Throughout its short history,
unnoticed by many, the complexion
of the coalition has been
changing. Often meeting with vague
promises or flat denials, rather than
commitments, in response to their
proposals, the coalition realized in
its frustration a need for a wider
base for action, more student
involvement, and near perfection in
their campaign. The coalition realized
that it could not perform
effectively as an elitist body.

As the SDS-SSOC, more liberal-activist
factions, and interested
students took seats on the coalition,
some of the more moderate
members began to drop off. Someone
on the coalition commented
that the original photograph that
was taken of the coalition on the
first Sunday night of its existence
and that is now posted on Robert
Rosen's door pictures a somewhat
different group of people than now
sit around the coalition's meeting
table.

Essence of Coalition

The change in the coalition is
the result of a learning process in
which factions that had never met
or tried to meet before found a way
to work together to resolve common
areas of concern. This process
in many cases involves a bending of
wills on the part of each coalition
member and the coalition members
who found that for personal reasons
they could not change, compromise
or bend their views, eventually
dropped out of the coalition.

This is the essence of the
coalition - a unity and a firm resolution to bend to a common
purpose.

One part of the coalition that
has not changed is its basic working
structure, which operates not by
voting but by consensus or compromise.
It is felt within the coalition
that to make decisions by majority
vote would alienate the losing side
of an argument, and the coalition
cannot afford to have a split in its
membership.

Somehow the coalition manages
to hash things over and over until it
reaches a decision that is agreeable
to everyone and is somehow a
rational, working solution.

All of this is not to say that the
coalition's structure has not been
challenged, for its meetings have
their mud-slinging and threatened
walkouts. In the past members have
flatly refused to go along with the
consensus, and although the problem
was resolved, similar ones will
undoubtedly arise in the future.

The loose structure of the
coalition incorporates no assigned
speaker or chairman and no definite
membership and is considered by
its members to be a key factor in
keeping the body together. It is a
theme of equality; however, in the
future the coalition may be forced
by the nature of its program of
build a more definite structure to
present to the public.

It might be said that the
coalition has not progressed far in
fulfilling its goals, and outwardly
this is true enough. If one notices,
though, that no one except Gov.
Godwin has denied the existence of
racial imbalance, sub-standard
wages, and the racially unrepresentative
make-up of the Board of
Visitors at the University, he sees
that the coalition is making progress