University of Virginia Library

The Blue Ribbon Committee

If students are confused as to exactly
which, if any, of the several codes of conduct
are in effect at the moment, that confusion is
certainly understandable. Now Vice President
for Student Affairs D. Alan Williams has
suggested the formation of a blue ribbon
committee to rewrite once and for all the
code of conduct. We only hope that this
suggestion is not rejected by the Student
Council, which through position papers and
various resolutions may have roped itself into
a position from which it cannot budge.

It is perhaps ironic that Mr. Williams made
his proposal inasmuch as at the beginning of
this academic year students were upset
because there had been little effort to have
students voice their views over the Code. That
was partially remedied when the Council's
rather mild suggestions for change were
accepted last fall by the Board. But students,
in a referendum made possible by the Union
of University Students, made it clear that
they found the rules, or at least the method in
which they were formulated, intolerable. And
so the students had rejected the Board's rules.
The Board then in effect vetoed new student
proposals (by referring them back to Mr.
Williams) and no one is happy at the moment.

We doubt whether the Board would accept
any purely student proposal, or more
crucially, whether President Shannon or Vice
President Williams would endorse a student
plan. The most practical approach is the blue
ribbon committee, composed mainly of
students, but also with enough faculty and
administration input to assure the Board that
the rules are fair and responsible. There are
certainly problems with the current set of
rules. Interim suspension remains, in spite of
all the negative student reaction this one
section has provoked. Any code should
specify what student rights are, rather than
merely list what students cannot do.

At their meeting last Monday the Council
representatives considered the Williams
proposal favorably. We suspect that if Mr.
Williams can get together with the Council to
select a satisfactory list of members of the
Committee, then the Council will accept the
proposal. Realistically speaking, it is a good
compromise, one we think does credit to Mr.
Williams' ingenuity.