University of Virginia Library

Small Concerns

At the regular meetings of the Board of
Visitors that group takes up all sorts of
questions, including some rather small
problems, which, although not the stuff of
which headlines are made, are often as
interesting as the large decisions. Friday
afternoon when the Student Affairs and
Athletics Committee of the Board met with
some members of the Student Council to
discuss revisions in the code of conduct, one
member of the Board, we are told, brought up
two lesser questions about student conduct
which bothered him.

We were surprised and delighted that this
gentleman was so concerned about these small
problems of student conduct because we have
been equally concerned. This particular
member of the Board was upset, to begin
with, over a particular cheer which has
become popular among students who disagree
with the decisions of the referees over at
University Hall basketball games. With only
one more home basketball game slated,
against the University of North Carolina on
February 27th, this particular form of
cheering will hopefully soon cease to occur. It
would be nice if this and other forms of bad
sportsmanship would not occur even during
the Carolina game of course, but students
around here seem to think that the "ACC
Atmosphere" necessarily means showing
visiting teams how obnoxious and juvenile we
can get in misguided efforts to support the
Cavaliers.

At any rate it is a student problem and an
embarrassing one at that. We hope the
particular cheer which has disturbed so many
in this community does not become a regular
chant at other large meetings.

The second concern voiced by the member
of the Board was what were students doing to
stop other students from wearing paths in the
grass around the Grounds, particularly at the
South end of the Lawn. Even though it has
been wet and muddy in recent weeks,
students (and some faculty we note) still plod
past Homer's statue to save a few seconds
getting to and from Wilson Hall. In front of
the Chapel an "ecology please" sign placed in
the well-worn path across the grass gets
knocked down periodically.

The Cavalier Daily has attempted to shame
students into sticking to the sidewalks but to
no avail. About the only deterrent on the
Lawn is Mrs. Mayo, who will give any student
she sees cutting across the Lawn a
fifteen-minute verbal blistering. It is a pity
that she spends most of her time elsewhere,
but others, including students could lecture
lawn strollers with the same spirit, if not
resolve, as does Mrs. Mayo.

And so, we are somewhat embarrassed, as
we hope the members of Student Council
were, over the questions posed by one
particular member of the Board, who, we
might point out, has some influence in the
Justice Department in Washington. Perhaps he
could arrange some sort of "preventive
detention" for those who cannot show proper
behavior in even these small areas.