University of Virginia Library

Changing

It's that time again. A new regime has
replaced the old and new ideas must naturally
result. Now is the time to make our positions
clear, to reassess the role of The Cavalier Daily
in the University community. It would be
customary to claim now in these columns,
with a few familiar quotations from Mr.
Jefferson thrown in to indicate divine
approval, that we are neither of the extreme
left nor far right, that while we do not believe
in change for the sake of change, we would
speak out and inform the public on significant
issues and unsatisfactory situations; and, of
course, we would mention how we regard our
newly acquired position with awe, pledging to
do our best to live up to its responsibilities.

We do not wish to treat lightly such
customary themes of new regime editorials,
for they can serve the important function of
outlining the general direction The Cavalier
Daily will assume in the coming year. But our
thoughts become muddled at this prospect;
we find it difficult to predict policy about a
University which is in the process of trying to
discover its identity. State-Uism lurks around
the comer. Coeducation, some say, will soon
be making shambles of our most sacred
traditions. No one seems quite sure what the
drive for "academic excellence" will mean in
the future academical village of 18,000
persons.

Change, it seems, is beginning to catch up
with the University. Certainly one of the most
significant developments in years is the active
role students have assumed in the University
community. There is a new awareness which
was absent three or four years ago when
apathy was very much the index to student
attitude. Students have now realized that they
can and ought to have a say in their
curriculum and in policy decisions which will
affect their lives as students and citizens. They
are no longer willing to tolerate what a certain
official in Virginia's higher government
recently advocated: the absence of social
concern from students in the academic
community. They are no longer willing to
accept a University which practices non-involvement
to the neighboring community.

This new student awareness — demanding a
University relevant to student life and the
outside community — will be one of the most
pressing issues the University must deal with
in the near future. We will not hesitate to
address our efforts in the coming year towards
meaningful solutions of the problems involved
in this issue. They are problems which will
require close examination of specific issues
and the personalities who make these issues;
we shall endeavor to comment on these issues
and personalities in a way which will bring
about needed change. One of the most
important steps towards that change is a
realization on the part of those in a position
of governing student life that the University is
a community, and that students, faculty,
administration, and staff are all members of it.