University of Virginia Library

Student Council Elections

Candidates Summarize Ideas, Proposals For Action

(Larry Sabato and Mark Vorder
Bruegge have filed unopposed
candidacies for Student
Council President and Vice
President. As a public service
The Cavalier Daily has asked
them to summarize their
platforms.-Ed.)

We are running for office
because we have specific
objectives we would like to
achieve.

We see Council's function as
two-fold. Its first responsibility
is to represent student opinion
to the administration. Its
second responsibility–and one
that we regard as increasingly
important–is providing services
to the students.

We enjoy good
relationships with most
administrators and we feel this
can contribute greatly to the
success of our lobbying efforts.
Some of our proposals which
must be negotiated with the
administration are as follows:
(1) We will oppose the
construction of the proposed
Observatory Cafeteria. It will
be no more convenient than
the present facility and will
overburden an already
financially troubled Food
Services Division. Many
administrators are also opposed
to the concept;

(2) The bus service should be
extended to the Rugby
Road-Gordon Avenue area and
eventually to outlying
residential areas;

(3) Additional recreational
facilities must be built and the
women's athletic program must
be expanded;

(4) We fully support the
implementation of the
"Security Report." There must
be more emphasis on patrolling
and crime solution;

(5) The amphitheater should
be grassed over. Funds should
not be diverted from academic
endeavors, but should be
sought from outside the
University;

(6) The number of
interdisciplinary courses,
liberal arts seminars, and
"University Nights" should be
expanded;

(7) Council must push
departmentally for reading
days in the new calendar or, if
necessary, other reasonable
alternatives;

(8) We must try to insure that
the administration continues to
remove parking from the
central Grounds.

In the area of services to
students, the following are
some of our proposals:

(1) We propose the
establishment of an
ombudsman as a
well-advertised complaint
referral service to act as an
intermediary for students
experiencing difficulties with
administrators, community
personnel, or facilities;

(2) We will provide a list of
acceptable off-grounds
housing, and continue and
publicize the Tenant
Complaint System in
cooperation with the student
lawyer;

(3) We will continue the
reform of the appropriations
system for more consistent and
fairer allocations, placing more
emphasis on increasing student
membership in the 90 funded
organizations.

(4) We must continue the meal
ticket exchange program and
work for 2nd semester
"drop.";

(5) Council officers and
representatives must maintain
close contact with students
through dorm visits and other
means;

(6) Student Council should
prepare for distribution to all
students a pamphlet on student
activities and student
government, detailing
opportunities for involvement;
(7) Community can exist only
when everyone feels a part of a
society. We must involve more
graduate students and
off-grounds residents in
University activities;

(8) We will re-issue the Ounce
of Prevention and Drug
pamphlets as well as Miranda
Cards to advise students of
their legal rights.

Students' interests must
also be represented to other
groups.

In the General Assembly,
we will fight any attempt by
the legislative Stone
Commission to limit
out-of-state students through
personal visits to legislators and
letter writing campaigns. Also,
we will actively urge passage of
the Virginia Housing Study
Commission report
recommending a statewide
model lease law, housing courts
and a rent withholding law. In
addition, we will make every
effort to seek a student
appointment to the Board of
Visitors by the new Governor.

In general, this year's
Student Council committee
structure adequately handled
student concerns. However, we
would select the most qualified
individuals to chair these
committees, whether or not
they were Student Council
members.

Little can be accomplished
without a great deal of time
and work. We hope that, in
voting, students will consider
foremost the time candidates
for officers and representatives
will spend on Council
activities.

* * *

(The Cavalier Daily asked
Student Council candidates to
briefly summarize their ideas
for work on Council. In the
following statements those
running on tickets were asked
to compile their ideas
jointly.–Ed.)

COLLEGE CANDIDATES

John Attanasio—
William Calohan

We realize that in running
for Student Council, that it is
and can be an effective
organization. But to be more
productive, Council must more
consistently seek out student
opinion. By broadening its
base, to include such problems
as concerts, teaching assistants,
curriculum, University
Committees, and the
Bookstore, Student Council
will be a more viable
organization.

Council must get involved
with everyday student
problems. With teaching
assistants, Council can work to
implement more extensive
student evaluation, and provide
motivation and recognition to
them. This is an area in which
we have done extensive
investigation through the
administration, faculty and
students. We run, not to cite
problems, but to implement
solutions.

Jerry Blair—Steve Vagnina

We can't stress enough the
importance of making students
aware of the continuing
operations of Student Council
and its possible import for
student's problems.

Publication of the agenda
for Council meetings and
distribution of an information
sheet with a list of Council
committees and their chairmen
would make Council more
accessible to the students.
Council must always maintain
a dynamic interaction with the
student body and avoid
incestuous polemics.

Council should coordinate
its efforts with those of
students on faculty and
University committees, and
take a more active role in the
area of academics. One possible
improvement is the elimination
of the need for a major by
instituting a General Studies
program. And mainly, we're
willing to work.

John Buckley—Bert Ellis

Our campaign's main theme
is that Student Council ought
to concentrate on matters of
direct student concern rather
than waste time debating the
political and moral issues of
the day.

We are running our
campaign on the basis of what
we can do in the future and
not on any past record of
committee assignments. We
hope to speak for a large
number of students that are
not usually represented on
Council, the ones who view
Council's frenetic activism as
unrepresentative of most
students.

Our platform includes:
disaffiliation with the National
Student Lobby, no
Compulsory meal plans for
first-year men; greater
autonomy for other student
bodies (First-year Council,
school councils, etc.), more
athletic facilities, and no
funding of political and social
groups.

Clarence Cain—Patti Kyle—
Taylor Putney

Educating Student Council
is the basis for most of our
proposals. At present there are
too many members who are
content to only attend
meetings. We advocate
formalized efforts to obtain
student opinion: regulated
mandatory dorm visits and
off-grounds input via
telephoning, mailing, etc. We
want to establish an
all-Student-Government
complaint and information
service so that students can
deal directly with
representatives.

In addition to seeking
students' opinions, Council
must have a method for taking
action on these ideas. We want
to alleviate the bureaucracy of
catch-up motions and constant
referral to committees. Instead,
each representative should be
assigned an area of
concentration so they can
develop a working knowledge
before problems arise and
apply pressure where it will do
the most good.

Finally, a massive publicity
campaign at the beginning of
the year to inform students
what Council should be doing
and where to go with specific
problems would greatly
increase Council's
effectiveness.

Seth Davidson—Pete Everett

We are concerned with the
issues that affect the quality of
student life at the University
and the need for administrative
decisions to reflect student
needs and wants. Specifically:

Through the housing
committee we will institute a
landlord evaluation system to
allow students to rate their
landlords on their willingness
to comply with the terms of
the lease, the condition of the
apartment, and its location, all
in relation to the price. This
will provide students with
guidelines when looking for
apartments before signing a
potentially detrimental lease.

Secondly, we propose the
hiring of students on financial
aid to assume some of
Security's minor tasks, i.e. the
ticketing of cars; this action
would provide scholarship
help, reduce unfair tickets,
and, most importantly, allow
the Department of Security to
employ less officers during the
day and more at night.

Greg Luce—Barb Savage—
Sherri Smith

We have worked for specific
facilities for recreation. We
hope to work with the Athletic
Department to develop
guidelines and priorities to use
the five dollar addition to the
athletic portion of the
comprehensive fee. Top
priority will be lighting for the
basketball and tennis courts.

As active participants in