University of Virginia Library

Time Out Receives Student Support

By Mike Russell

Circulating petitions provided
bountiful results Thursday and
Friday as 2200 signatures were
submitted on 78 of 200 petitions.
Expectations for the total return
run as high as 3500, hopefully
before Tuesday's meeting with the
administration.

The ad hoc committee for
October 29 has already secured
Dean William's approval and his
agreement to appear at the meeting
on the Lawn to listen to the
students who turn out for the
meeting. President Shannon is being
contacted, and the committee
hopes that he too will appear at the
meeting to receive the petitions.

Extending an open invitation to
the Board of Visitors arose as an
idea from the plans for the
University to participate in the
National Student Association's
Time-Out. Nationally planned,
Time-Out has received the support
of 150 campuses across the nation.

Robert S. Powell, Jr. President
of the NSA wrote a letter to the
organizers explaining the concept of
Time-Out. In it he said;

"...Despite our demands to be
treated maturely and with dignity
we continue to enjoy second-class
status in the educational
community.

"In short, this past year has
been a frustrating one for students.
On campuses, in political
conventions, in the communities,
we have asked to be heard, and we
have been rejected. We have asked
for justice and it has been scorned
as anarchy. We have demanded
freedom, and those to whom our
pleas have been directed have called
it license. We are accused of failing
ti use legitimate channels for our
protests, yet in campus after
campus, in primary after primary,
we have found those channels
closed to us.

"The question before us, then is
obvious: where do we go from
here?

"The National Student
Association, in order to meet that
question directly, plans to set aside
the day of October 29, 1968, as a
day that students around the nation
declare 'Time Out,' so that we can
confront squarely the issues that
are important to us.

"The idea behind the day is
simple — on as many campuses
around the country as possible,
schools will suspend their regular
order of business and allow the
students on those campuses to plan
for, and act on, those issues they
consider most important. Time Out
calls for a one day stop to all
regular classes — but it is not a
strike. It is neither an attempt to
issues an ultimatum nor a project to
engage students in someone else's
political movement."

Participation in Time Out by
all students at the University is
important. To learn who the Board
of Visitors are, and to allow them
to learn something of the way that
the student here think is the
embryonic idea behind the
University's part in Time Out.
Tuesday afternoon will allow those
students who have the desire to see
the Visitors hold an open meeting
tell President Shannon why they
wish to have this happen. Those
students who have grievances will
be given the chance to air their
gripes.

Also featured on the 29th is a
debate between members of ROTC
and the members of SDS on the
importance and places of ROTC on
the Grounds. This debate will take
place in old Cabell Hall at 3 p.m.