University of Virginia Library

Nominations

Back in the days when Sceptre and Skull &
Keys were the College's only political organs,
a small group of fraternity men would get
together to collect on old favors, promise new
ones, and decide who was going to run for
President of the College simply by forcing
pledges to go to the caucuses and telling them
whom to vote for. But, of course, Sceptre and
Skull & Keys had abolished themselves, and
the old ways are dead.

Now there are two ideologically-oriented
political organs, the Jefferson Party and the
Virginia Progressive Party, and they nominate
their candidates at an open convention. But
there doesn't seem to be any more student
participation in the process than there was
with the old caucuses. There was only one
contested election in each of the two
conventions held this past week. The turnout
of delegates was smaller than the caucuses
used to pull, although most of the caucus
members did not attend by choice.

It's difficult to tell why this should be the
case. Undoubtedly, the two new parties are
more open to student membership than were
the caucuses. But they seem to have rekindled
only apathy, at least insofar as student
participation in the nominating process is
concerned. Undoubtedly there are still a few
people in each organization who effectively
decide who is going to run long before the
actual nominating votes. Perhaps this combination
of apathy and oligarchy is inevitable,
but we had hoped for more when the old
caucuses abolished themselves.