University of Virginia Library

Three's A Crowd

With some dismay and not a little
irritation we learned only within the past
week that, once again, the University had
misjudged its admission figures for the
upcoming year, and the consequent overflow
of first-year students would have to be packed
like sardines into triple dormitory rooms.

The same situation arose last summer, but
for radically different reasons. Last year,
more women accepted offers of admission to
the University than the Admissions Office had
expected, and the entering class consequently
overshot projected enrollment by more than
100, forcing some 79 students to squeeze into
triple occupancy in the Alderman Road
dormitories.

This year, however, the University felt
compelled to admit 60 more "qualified"
Virginian first-year students. Admissions Dean
Ernest Ern denied that the latest influx came
as a result of political pressures, yet we
wonder. It strikes us as a little more than
mere coincidence that similar late-announced
increases should occur in the University's and
William and Mary College's law school entering
classes for the fall. Only a few months before,
state Sen. William F. Stone wrote each
school's president and expressed
dissatisfaction with the proportion of in-state
students in each law school.

Nor is it a particularly closely-guarded
secret that a number of other legislators beside
Sen. Stone are disgruntled enough with the
number of in-state applicants turned down by
the University and other state institutions
that they are seriously considering
introducing legislation in the upcoming
session of the General Assembly that would
place a quota restriction on the number of
out-of-state applicants that state-supported
schools can accept. Such legislation, we are
told, if introduced and backed by the proper
legislators, has an excellent chance of passage.

Another factor which probably aggravated
the over-enrollment situation, we think, is that
the University is strictly held to the schedule
of enrollment figures which it has submitted
to the State Council for Higher Education.
Since state funding is strictly in accordance
with the size of the enrollment, it is no
surprise that the University is required to fill
the dormitories to capacity in order to gain
maximum funding. However, this sets up the
lamentable situation we have just witnessed
where the University discovered it had
overlooked some "qualified" Virginians and
thus was forced to pack them in, with all the
attendant discomforts and problems of
overcrowding dormitories designed to house
two students per room maximum.

Whether the funding situation contributed
to the problem or whether the University
undertook to admit surplus Virginians to
appease irate legislators or to hopefully head
oil potential legislation that would further
diminish the level of out-of-state students
attending classes here, matters little. The
inconveniences, the discomforts of living
practically on top of your classmates can be
borne by the put-upon first-year students who
will be 'lucky' enough to have two roommates
instead of one. Observing the housing
situation, both on- and off-Grounds, for the
past three years, we have ceased to be amazed
at the kind of conditions students will endure
to live and learn in Charlottesville.

We are amazed, however, and not a little
disappointed that the University chooses to
persist in the practice of making such
decisions after the enrollment figures for the
next year have already been publicized, in
secret, and then excuse itself by saying that
"qualified" Virginians were overlooked. We
think that it's high time for the whole
question of what exactly is a "qualified"
Virginian to be brought out in the open and
discussed publicly by the University
community as a whole. A decision as
fundamental as this, which we believe in the
long run will play a vital role in determining
the quality of education that is offered at the
University, should be made by not just a few
administrators or even by the Board of
Visitors alone.

Instead of being forced to pry the
admission out of deans and administrators
that they are admitting more in-state students
than originally announced, then presenting us
with a fait accompli, triple rooms and all, we
think it's about time this University started
respecting the much-flaunted, vaunted
tradition of open rational discussion of issues,
where students play a crucial role in the
governance of their institution. If the role is
no more than a sham for decisions made
behind closed doors in closed committee
meetings, then let's drop the facade and admit
that the principles upon which this University
has existed for over a century now are
"inoperable" in light of recent pressures. At
least then we will be the better for realizing
the miserable state to which we have fallen.