University of Virginia Library

Student Appointments

The idea of Student Council making the
student appointments for administrative committees,
therefore, may have well been greeted
with some skepticism by President Shannon. But
good arguments were presented as to why this
system would be a sound one: President Shannon
is often out of touch with student thinking; letting
Council choose the student members would save
time for other busy work in Pavilion VIII; Council
controlled appointments would also give real
decision making power to the Council, not just an
advisory role; the power of appointment by
council would represent no loss of power by
President Shannon since the committees are still
heavily weighted by faculty and administration
members.

Should the faculty pick their representatives on
these committees? As one student put it at the
conference, "That's their problem."

The idea of student picked representatives on
faculty committees was also discussed, and it was
pointed out that in some schools this situation
already exists. In the Architecture school, for
example, students sit in equal number with faculty
members in a board deciding matters of
curriculum. A particular problem exists in the
College because it is so large and is without any
formal channels where students can meet with
faculty members at the department level.