University of Virginia Library

Student Candidates 'Discuss' Election Issues

By Mark Pirrung
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

— Ed.)

Michael Capobianco

Polls will open at 9 a.m. tomorrow
morning for voting on a University-wide
referendum, two College Student Council
seats, and on senior class officers for
degree candidates.

All students will be offered the
opportunity to show their support or
rejection of a petition issued by the
Union of University Students. The
petition demands the repeat of the
recently written Code of Conduct and its
replacement by a code written by
students.

The issue proclaimed by the petition is
that the Code of Conduct "does not have
the just consent of the governed."

Students in the College of Arts and
Sciences will elect two representatives to
the Student Council. Eight students are
contending for these positions; Allen Freeman
and Tom King of the Jefferson Party; Ronald
Low and Jack Farrell as Independents; Michael
Capobianco and Jacob Ference of the
Liquifactionist Party, and Phil Chabot and
Andy Potler of the Virginia Progressive Party.

All degree candidates will elect the President
of their class and will also vote a yes/no on
their class constitution.

Polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
tomorrow and Thursday. Paid poll watchers
will require student identification cards or the
voucher of another student. Polling locations
will be set up in every school and in the
dormitory areas.

On the initiative of the poll watchers, and
not associated with University elections,
students will also be offered at the polling
places the opportunity to sign a position
requesting a Federal Grand Jury investigation
of the Kent State incident.

Following are the statements of four
candidates who are seeking the two positions of
Student Council Representative from the
College of Arts and Sciences:

Michael Capobianco

Essentially, the Liquifactionists stand for
the common sense that everyone who is even
remotely clever is associated with (i.e.
abolishing rules, permitting refrigerators and
stoves, dishwashers, etc. in dorms, student
strikes, etc.) Additionally we favor abolishing
the Student Council and setting up a system of
student referendums in its place, returning the
Glass Hat to its former position as far as the
line goes, distribution of free contraceptives to
any student requesting them, and the
publication at student council expense of the
action-packed 262 joke Helen Keller Joke Book
in full color. Ultimately we hope to program
the Gilmer Hall computer with a simulation of
everything that happens on the Grounds, and
let everyone go home.

The LPBCC has already achieved many of its
goals: to send a critique of the Contract
Cafeteria to all incoming first-yearman to
abolish Phys Ed, to hold more referendums, to
open (at least temporarily) the SM (Sex Books)
Section of Alderman Library, etc. All this
without even winning an election! Think what
we could do if we won once. Vote for us. We
are not a joke.

Phil Chabot

The question of this election is whether we
as students are going to accept the
responsibility to take positive action on the
issues which confront us.

Andy Potler and I have set forth both
reasonable expectations and means to achieve

them. Students should seek out priorities and
insure as well that the priorities of the
University are benefiting students as they
should.

Toward this end the greater role must be
played by Council acting in the best interests of
students of this University. Our opinion of
Council is that it can fulfill a meaningful role in
student life if the proper students are elected to
membership. That decision rests now with
those who will vote in this election.

John Farrell

The Student Council has two main
responsibilities: to insure fair representation
and to provide leadership based on the interests
of all members of the Student Community. I
am running because I feel the Council is failing
in both respects.

The party system is structured so that a
decision based on logical, unpartisan thought is
impossible. Too often at Council meetings, the
same people side together on a wide spectrum
of issues. The students' interest is sacrificed for
party rivalry. As an independent I could make
decisions unbiased by political influence.

Although the 2 parties fancy themselves as
"Progressive" or believers in Jeffersonian ideals,
their failure to nominate a first year student for
Council shows their lack of concern for a large
section of the University community. The first
year class is entitled to a say in the decisions
they will have to abide by. As a first yearman. I
can make sure our interests are looked after.

On issues, I support the VPP's stand on the
referendum, feeling the student body is entitled
to make its own laws, but support the Jefferson
party on the question of ROTC accreditation.
The stands I take on these and other issues
indicate my ability to remain independent, and
vote for the student's, not my party's interest.

Allen C. Freeman

Photo By Rick Smith

John Farrell

Allen C. Freeman

Why do I want to be a Student Council
officer?

I'll be honest. I don't really know. I don't
know because I recognize that politics is a
compromising and egotistical game. I also know
that to get things done, somebody must be a
politician. I however regret the notion that a
politician must make unending and unfulfillable
promises. Maybe the reason I want the position
is so that I can prove that politics need not be
corrupting: that I can keep my promises.

I believe a politician is one who is willing to
be informed and honest enough to change his
mind if the information contradicts his beliefs.
Also, a politician should explain,
unemotionally, how he reached his decisions.

Where do I stand on the "issues?" I've been
campaigning against the Code of Conduct
referendum. It is ill advised, poorly written and
damaging to the University. This is not to say
I'm against student self government, but for the
University living in a real world where idealism
must take a back seat to the political realities of
this state and this Board of Visitors.

The Jefferson Party platform does not list
those things everybody is always for:
humanizing the dorm, strengthening first year
committee, Alderman Council, etc. Our
platform seeks to point out the JP and VPP
differences on ROTC, the referendum and also
to include those things we consider new and
worthy of intensified study.

I'm not an expert on all things, but I do
have a desire to be informed, a halted for
political games, and a basic trust in people.
(How can anyone work with the administration
who has no trust in them? Scepticism, yes, but
coupled with trust.) I have a compulsion to see
things done.

It sounds egotistical and idealistic. It may
be. But I'll be honest. Politics involves people
and people deserve honesty.