University of Virginia Library

'Bravos And Kudos'

The Cavalier Daily used to have a reviewer
whose favorite phrase of approbation was
"bravos and kudos." Those are exactly our
own sentiments today in considering three
recent developments at the University.

The first is the remarkably large crowd
that turned out Tuesday night for the Student
Council meeting, which had to be
moved as a result from the Honor Committee
room to Old Cabell Hall. Considering
the many charges of apathy levelled at the
University's students through the years, it is
heartening to see that 300 to 400 students
felt strongly enough-whichever point of view
they represented-to attend the Council meeting.
This augurs well for the future of
student government. The Council itself, after
a delay that brought it much bad
publicity, treated the issue of the non-discrimination
rule in the final reckoning in a
commendably enlightened fashion. The Council's
president, Mr. Evans, deserves special
praise for his skill in handling what could
have been an unruly audience.

The second development is the Board of
Visitor's decision last weekend to rescind their
approval of building the controversial east-west
highway across University property in
the area near University Hall. The change of
policy was attributed to "new information."
By this, the Board possibly meant the great
furor that arose over the threatened destruction
of the unique neighborhood around Grady
and Gordon Avenues and Rugby Road.
If this public reaction did influence the Board,
we can see-as we did in the case of the
non-discrimination rule- the role organized
expressions of civic-minded concern are able
to play in the governing process.

The third development is the publication
by the Honor Committee of a pamphlet,
directed primarily at first-year English students,
explaining the concept of plagiarism.
The pamphlet is a very attractively printed
one, another testimony to the skill of the
University's graphics department, and as a
result students are much more likely to keep
it than they would keep a mimeographed
sheet. The Honor Committee credits Mr.
Elwood of the English department for much
of the explanation of what is often a very
ambiguous term; we ought to be grateful
that, at a time when so many of the younger
members of the faculty think it fashionable to
be skeptical of the Honor System, a teacher
like Mr. Elwood would give so unselfishly,
in the words of the Committee, of his "time,
energy, and abilities."