University of Virginia Library

Mr. Shannon Cooperates...

President Shannon, who departs for
England soon, will leave a much better image
in the minds of students as a result of
Wednesday evening's meeting with the Student
Council. Meeting with Council members
after acting as host at a buffet on Carr's Hill,
Mr. Shannon was at his most co-operative,
although at times he did evade substantive
answers to a few questions passed by students.

Mr. Shannon came over to Council with
one particular piece of good news. He agreed
in principle to the proposal first broached at
Mountain Lake and later formalized in a
unanimous resolution, that Student Council
should have the power to appoint the student
members of the University's administrative
committees. The President's only stipulation
was the more alternatives be designated by
Council to take care of last minute changes
that have invariably plagued him in filling past
student committee posts.

Undoubtedly, the fact that Student Council
will thereby assume an onerous task -
screening and selecting all the students who
will be needed to fill the posts - has
something to do with the President's decision.
But we feel that by accepting Council's
request that he delegate his authority to them,
Mr. Shannon has demonstrated that he is
willing to work with the students if they are
willing to work with him for the betterment
of the University. The new arrangement
should give Council a great deal more power
than it presently wields, as well as getting the
best and most representative students for
the administrative committees.

In other issues, Mr. Shannon was regrettably
less definite. He still could do no me
with the thorny problem of increased bk
admissions than to assert that the Administration
is making an effort to do better. And e
plainly was loathe to commit himself one way
or another to any of the suggestions t
forward by Council members for increasing
the pool of qualified applicants. When n
Cass asked whether, in view of the fact t
many first-year students start introducary
language courses, the present requirement
an applicant have two years of mon
language in high school needlessly eliminates
many students from rural and ghetto h
schools, Mr. Shannon replied only that he
certain that the College Faculty had g
reasons for instituting the language requirement.
Plainly, he is going to examine any
student proposal, no matter how vague, very
carefully before he agrees with it. In this, we
feel he is insisting on formality in the
exchange of ideas which might be considered
stifling; but that is probably all that can be
expected of a man in his position.

But even as he dodged many questions, the
President was making an effort to communicate
and co-operate with student groups. We
hope to see more of the same in the future.