University of Virginia Library

Letter To The Editor

ZPG Is Expansion Solution

I believe that some comments
are in order concerning two articles
which appeared in the Friday, 22
October 1971, issue of The Cavalier
Daily.

In his editorial, Stuart Pape
intimated that "the faculty [is] still
uninvolved" in the question of the
growth of the University and its
attendant problems. This
description might-be reasonable, if a
grand average were taken over all
faculty members; but such a
composite "average" person does
not exist, for each faculty member
is a unique individual. Many of
these individuals are interested and
involved in the future of the
University, and quite a few are hard
at work trying to solve the
problems of growth. Diligent labor,
and not irresponsible monologues
nor fruitless confrontations, is
necessary to make this a great and
livable University.

Jim Beebe's letter to the editor,
which stresses that population
growth is the fundamental cause of
our expansion problems, is
completely apropos. Some may
quibble that this explanation is
simplistic, for it neglects migration,
rising expectation, and "progress";
but in the final analysis, zero
population growth is the only true
solution to our problems. Given
finite resources, limitless growth is
a physical impossibility. Until we
recognize this fact, we will continue
to "waster out energies" attempting
to keep up with boundless
expansion.

No Defense

Miss Ward's letter is by far the
best piece advocating abortion that
I have yet seen, but it still contains
a few flaws.

1) The 'interest' of the unborn
child in an abortion decision is its
life. If it is aborted, it dies. Even
though the social effects of carrying
a child can be adverse, and even
though some of the physiological
effects of pregnancy are not
pleasant, can it really be said that
the mother, in the average case, has
any interest in any way comparable
to that which the child has at
stake?

2) To let the mother be the sole
arbiter as to what the interests of
her unborn child are, and to balance
them against her own opposed
interests, if any, is to let a party to
a contested issue be the judge of
that issue, except in one respect:
the 'defense' has no voice. Unborn
children need an advocate, since
they can't protect their own rights.
One of the greatest guarantees of
fair justice in normal life is the fact
that unjustly treated men often
seek to rebalance the scales of
justice themselves; to avoid this,
justice, which was originally
conceived as a replacement of the
blood feud, is usually kept
reasonably fair, in order that men
may not pursue revenge in order to
right injustices. An unborn child
doesn't have that option, and
therefore needs even more
protection. To let the mother do
the balancing is much more like
letting a man be tried in a court
where the prosecuting attorney is
the judge and that man is not
allowed to speak his own defense.
How can this be fair?

3) Our president, and a third of
the people who have volunteered
their services are women; we are
not a monosexual group. What,
then, becomes of the charge of
'male chauvinism'?

Vacancy

It appears that the concept of
the cloistered university shut off
from the rest of the community
lives on here in Charlottesville.
Early Sunday afternoon we
witnessed campus security officers
ask two non-student town's kids to
leave an almost deserted Memorial
Gym. Obviously the University has
legitimate reasons for excluding
non-university people from
university facilities. Among those
reasons are security and lack of
facilities. But it escapes us why
non-students should be excluded
from university facilities when
those facilities aren't being utilized
by students.

The University is a state
institution supported to a great
extent by general revenue funds
collected from all the citizens of
this state. It should, therefore, to
the greatest extent possible be open
to those who help support it with
their tax dollars.

An "open" Memorial Gym will
possibly require more work on the
part of the athletic department. It
will entail better communications
with non-students using the gym so
that no misunderstandings will
arise. In spite of possible
impediments we still believe that if
facilities are not being used by
students they should be available
on a reasonable basis to
non-students who want to use
them.