University of Virginia Library

A Welcome Opportunity

Certainly the decision of the Faculty of
the College of Arts and Sciences to allow
student representation on five of its nine
standing committees is a long overdue but
welcomed chance for students to assert a
more influential role in determining how they
are to live during their stay at the University.
We would urge the faculties of other schools
to follow the gratifying example of the
College of Arts and Sciences if they have not
yet done so.

Students in the College should not look at
this opportunity as token step offered merely
to deceive them into thinking they are going
to accomplish something. It is at the
committee level where most of the work and
changes are implemented at this university.
Students will now have full voting membership
on committees which have a considerable
amount of power in structuring a student's
academic life. The Educational Policy and
Budget Committee, for example, can effect
changes in academic standards. It also studies
curriculum requirements and requirements for
major subjects, recommends various degrees
to be included or excluded from the College
offerings, and passes on all special and
interdepartmental programs.

Student nominations for these committees
will be drawn largely from a list submitted to
the Faculty Nominations Committee by the
Student Council. Any student interested in
serving on a committee should contact a
member of Council as soon as possible, for
membership selection is slated for the next
faculty meeting in May.

Although gratified by the Faculty's action,
we feel that it should reconsider its decision
to exclude students from the Faculty Rules
Committee. The thinking behind this exclusion
can be seen in a resolution which reads in
part "it seems appropriate that students
should serve on such standing committees as
are concerned with the formulation of policy,
and not on those committees which are
concerned with the application of these
policies to individuals, either faculty or
students."

The Rules Committee does indeed deal
with application of policy to students,
exclusively. It receives petitions and appeals
from students and makes decisions on them
quite frequently. It probably meets more
often than any other faculty committee.
Some have argued that the cases heard before
this committee are highly personal in nature
and that student representation on this
committee would not be desirable. We would
like to point out that students on the Honor
Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the
Bad Check Committee deal with highly
personal and confidential student matters on a
regular basis and do so very discreetly. They're
also certainly concerned with the "application"
of policies which the Faculty resolution
seems to regard as unwanted. It would seem
to us that student membership on the
Committee on Faculty Rules would be
desirable. It is a committee which has very
direct control over a student's future in the
University community. We urge the Faculty
of the College of Arts and Sciences to
reexamine their position concerning students
on this committee. The only just and
equitable conclusion would be a reversal of
the present policy of exclusion.