University of Virginia Library

The Spring Elections

Tom Rickards and other students have
been working hard over the past few months
to make sure that Student Council, Honor
Committee, and Judiciary elections which will
be held during the next two months are
well-coordinated. They have done an
excellent job so far in getting most of the
University's schools to elect their presidents
and other officers on the 17th and 18th of
March. The only snafu they have run into in
planning Spring elections is the Student
Council representatives, a majority of whom
still want to divide their own election into
two parts.

We were disturbed, as was Mr. Rickards,
by the Council's decision Tuesday night to
hold their election for President and Vice
President at the end of March. This was done,
after the Council's bylaws were changed, on a
motion by Tom Collier. Now Mr. Collier will
probably be running for Council President
this Spring and thus should probably not
initiate actions in this area if he wants to
avoid criticism.

The week before Mr. Collier had urged
dividing this election, but after an editorial we
ran last week he informed us that he had
changed his mind. Well he has changed it back
again unfortunately. Unless he and several
other councilmen can change their minds by
next Tuesday the Council's opportunity to
have one election in which turnout is high will
be gone.

As things now stand there will be school
officer elections in the middle of March,
Student Council elections for President and
Vice President at the very end of March,
Senior class elections sometime after that, and
elections for members of the Judiciary
Committee and Student Council
representatives at the end of April.

We suspect that the reason many members
of the Council wish to divide the elections is
because a lot of them will be candidates for
either President or Vice President of the
Student Council. If they lose in that election
they will still have the opportunity to run for
Council representative. These ambitious
councilmen are needlessly adding another
election to the schedule, when one election
for all Student Council positions would
suffice, merely for their own convenience.

The Council will have an opportunity next
week to reconsider. Mr. Collier's motion and
vote to have all of their elections on the same
day. We hope those members who are not
going to be involved in the election will be
able to keep the Council elections united
because those members with aspirations seem
to be too concerned with their own security
to consider the inconvenience and confusion
they are causing among the students they are
supposed to represent.