University of Virginia Library

Phil Chabot

Providing A Rare Opportunity

Weeks ago I wrote my last
CD column, convinced that
student government just wasn't
worth the bother. But the
pre-Christmas announcement
that D. Alan Williams will
resign this spring as
Vice-President for Student
Affairs causes me to take up
the pen once more. For the
departure of Mr. Williams from
administrative office provides
an opportunity for the
advancement of student
interests that may not present
itself again for a decade.

This is not to say that I find
any great pleasure in Mr.
Williams' departure. It is true
that we often disagreed. Yet he
is a man who sought to do
what he thought best for the
University. In fact, his office
often provided a refuge of sorts
for students who suddenly
found themselves in personal
or official difficulty. There is
much in his administration of
the Student Affairs Office to
praise.

Nor do I mean to point out
today the issues over which he
disagreed with many student
leaders: his insistence on
high-rise dorms for Lambeth
Field despite massive student
opposition the implication of
his office in many of the legal
difficulties in which individual
students found themselves in
the first place; and what
seemed, at times, his duplicity,
which led ultimately to a
frustrated Student Council
seeking his resignation or
removal in 1970. But these are
examples of instances where
not the man, but the role he
was required to perform must
be faulted. For the basis of our
disagreement was the
perception of the political
function of the Office for
Student Affairs.

Explanatory Role

Many of us in those years
saw the office in its ideal form
as a student advocate within
the administration, at the least,
a direct channel for student
communication with the
decision-making aspects of the
University administration: an
office for student affairs. In an
operational sense it should
have been the office that
argued against high-rise dorms,
pushed for a re-evaluation of
the calendar, sought better
weekend hours for the Castle
or even roach-free dorms.

There are plenty of
advocates for the
administrative staff. The
business office – whose head
refuses to meet with students
– insists on high-rise dorms for
economic reasons. Bureaucratic
complacency permits decreased
food service operations on
week-ends and permits roaches
to encroach upon dorm
residents without opposition
from the Housing Office. But
instead of an advocate for
student interests within the
administration, the Student
Affairs Office is, too often, a
body that explains
administrative decisions and
bureaucratic inaction to
students. It is, perhaps, this
factor – combined with the
many failures of The Council
itself – that has left the
Student Council isolated, with
no direct and functioning
access to or influence within
the University's administrative
system.

For several years now the
Council has refused to take the
necessary steps to establish
itself independently of this
system. Thus, Mr. Williams'
resignation poses a rare
opportunity to transform the
Office For Student Affairs into
a channel for student concerns
by providing an opportunity to
change the entire outlook of
the office.

Visible Decisions

The accomplishment of that
opportunity rests on two
things: the good will of the
President's Office and the
efficiency of the Student
Council. The President will
have to require a major change
in the administrative
performance of that office and
he must be willing to allow the
real decision-making process to
be more visible. On the other
hand the Student Council will
have to operate much more
efficiently as a body and
through its officers than has
been the case for some time in
order to grab the initiative and
change this opportunity into
an accomplished fact. Then,
finally, it may all be worth the
bother.