University of Virginia Library

Phil Chabot

J. Harvie And The Tiddly-Wink Ticket

Recently Student Council
followed its herd instinct and
voted unanimously to establish
an "influential" committee to
pick a committee to join
another committee ad nausea
with the eventual purpose of
providing "student input" in the
selection of a new University
President.

This "influential"
committee well deserves our
attention. For despite all its
"influentialness" it is about as
representative of the student
body as student J. Harvie
Wilkinson's appointment to the
Board of Visitors some years
back.

Influence Image

On what criteria were those
"influential" organizations
chosen? If newspapers only
report the news, what right
does a representative of the CD
have to even remotely
participate in the appointment
of a President, beyond its own
editorial page? What election
ever gave the mantle of
"representative" to resident
advisers? Who elected members
of the Judiciary Committee to
do anything but adjudicate?
And, if these organizations are
included, why not include
Corks and Curls, or the First
Year or Residential Councils on
the University Guides? Are
they not influential in their
own right?

This group is considered
"influential" because it
consists of people who believe
each other to be influential. It
is a group of special interests.
It is certainly not
representative of the student
body at large. It cannot be
justified unless you just read
Burke's speech to the electors
of Bristol. Just how democratic
this choice is even intended to
be is evident by the fact that
the screening committee is
itself to be selected not by vote
of these "influential"
organizations, but by the
appointment of their
"influential" chairmen.

A committee composed of
"influential" organizations is
not atypical of the good
old-U's tendency to keep
things 'in the family.' The same
kind of committee selects
Lawn residents with such
wonderfully pleasing results
(50% of Lawn residents are former
counselors, 10% are from the
former CD-controlling
fraternity, etc.)

As past experience shows,
this "influential" group runs a
tremendous risk of failing to
adequately represent the
majority of students who are
not a part of this mutually
beneficial private club. The CD
began just two weeks ago in its
examination of the counseling
system to expose part of that
club (a miraculous event made
possible only by the fact that
this year's editors are the first
in many years not to come
from the CD-ruling fraternity).

What is atypical of this
committee is the unbelievable
willingness of the Student
Council to be a part of it and
that its sole purpose is to select
another committee. Not even
the much-hated "Mannix-Machine"
ever pulled anything
like that! And to think that it
comes after two consecutive
Student Body Presidents have
campaigned on an
anti-bureaucracy theme. Well.

How much more simple and
representative would it have
been to simply request the
elected governing bodies of
each school to appoint
representatives – perhaps in
numbers proportional to their
number in the student body.
For although the rector's
famous letter failed on many
points, it at least established
the proper criteria of
representing large group
interests, rather than special
interest. While still not fully
representative, such
arrangements would, at least,
have been more so than the
present conglomeration.

In fact, rather than hand
over its representativeness to a
group of "influentials" Council
itself might have performed the
task as it did in the
recommendation of a Provost
two years ago.

Perhaps most dangerous is
the potential for this
committee to select the next
committee as Council used to
select its committees: anyone
not known by a person in
attendance didn't have a
chance.

Obviously the Council has
yet to learn that "input" – even
influential input   is not
influence. In fact, input
beyond the control of elected
representatives has been
counter-productive.

Pervasive Apathy

But the Student Council
itself lost whatever chance
there might have been to gain
influence in the selection of a
new University President by its
simple failure to take the
initiative.

Usually blunders like this
can be ignored because Council
is engaged in tiddly-wink
pursuits by its own refusal to
do anything important. But
this time the issue is important.

It's bad enough to be done
in on an important issue by
other agents. But when
students themselves do it to
you it even hurts your pride
No wonder only 30% of the
students vote.