University of Virginia Library

Supports Constitution

With regard to the proposed
Student Council Constitution: a
few words in support of ratification,
and in reply to recent well-intentioned,
but apparently misinformed
or misguided editorial
comments and questions on the
part of Student Council members
and CD staff.

1) Why a new student council
constitution? The old constitution,
which sought to provide an effective
student representative body
and an efficient executive framework
for a student body of 4,000,
no longer effectively serves a student
body of 7,000, and promises
to become less representative, and
less administratively efficient for
a student body of 10,000.

2) Isn't a small, 21 member
council more efficient than a 50
member student senate and a separate,
popularly elected executive?
Yes, for a tightly knit, undergraduate
university of 4,000 students
a 21 member council serves
quite effectively as both a representative
body and a general
executive committee...but, with
7,000 students, and an increasingly
long list of council committees,
academic committees, and administrative
committees which require
the attention of students
and Student Government, the present
council system has become increasingly
less effective as a representative
institution, and sorely
overburdened in its executive responsibilities.
Already nearly one-third
of the members of council
spend two evenings a week at the
meetings of one executive committee.
Most council members
serve on at least two and often
three or four executive committees
alone. What happens when there
are 10,000 students... and 15,000
committees?

3) Can't the old constitution
be amended? Why promulgate a
new one? The old constitution
could be amended...but the new
constitution is a unified whole,
aimed at filling both the representative
and executive, requirements
of student government in a
modern, diverse, expanding university.
Read the old constitution
in the Jeffersonian. At best, it's
a meek little paper which asserts
nothing and accepts a truly second-rate
role for student government.

4) What about popular election
of the Council president. Doesn't
the council know who is best suited
for the job? It has always seemed
strange that at Virginia the student
body president is not elected by
the student body. The council
doesn't always know who's best
for the job...sometimes that's sadly
obvious...and at other times, when
the council knows better, the present
constitution gives them no
choice.

5) Wasn't the new constitution
rather hastily drawn up? The new
constitution was not hastily drawn
up, nor was it hastily passed by
last year's council. I don't remember
seeing any of this year's most
vociferous critics at any of the
preliminary sessions of the Constitutional
Revision Committee last
year...nor were any of the newer
council members to be seen at
more than the very last of the
debates on the constitution. The
new constitution was reviewed
article by article in committee,
and article by article in open council
debates for weeks on end during
the course of the last semester,
66-67. Read it.

6) What about the I.F.C.?
When the I.F.C. is elected by
the student body as a whole,
according to a constitution ratified
by the student body as a whole,
then it can be The Student Government.
Until that time it remains
subordinate to Student Council,
and properly so.

As the University has grown,
student government, under the existing
constitution, has become
less and less a student political
force, and more and more a student
political club, unable to meet
adequately the rising demands incumbent
upon it as a representative
and executive institution.
As far as I can see one of the
best ways to stop this trend is to
provide student government with
the organizational framework
necessary for effective representation
of student concerns, and effective
administration of student
affairs. Vote for the new constitution.