University of Virginia Library

The controversy that blazed around
the Student Council's temporary
suspension of the rule against
patronage of segregated
facilities by student organizations
generated so much more smoke
than light that I fear one important
incident may pass unnoticed. I
refer to the letter signed by thirty-one
faculty members which
appeared in Tuesday's Cavalier
Daily.

The rule in question was made
by the Student Council, suspended
by the Council, and finally reinstated
by the Council in a
strengthened form at the behest
of a vocal faction of the student
body. At no time was the advice
of the faculty members ever required,
and at no time was it
ever solicited. The students of this
University proved quite capable of
resolving the issue independently.

Certainly faculty members,
whether requested to or not, have
a right to put in their two cents
worth on any issue (although two
cents is perhaps an overly generous
estimate in the present case). But
in controversies between factions
of the student body and their
elected representatives I, for one,
think it desirable that faculty members
exercise considerably more
restraint than was evidenced by the
authors of that priggish polemic
in Tuesday's CD.

The letter in question explicitly
imputed moral turpitude and
bigotry to a majority of the
member of the Student Council.
The validity of those imputations
appears most dubious in the light
of subsequent events. Of course,
the members could not
know what course the Council
sub would take at the
, signed their names to
, but that is all
more why they might
have been more cautious in making
snap judgments on the personal
integrity of the Councilmen. While
I realize that certain of these
faculty members find it difficult
to forego any opportunity to exhibit
their crusading egalitarianism,
I hope that they will henceforth
find it possible to restrain
themselves in the use of invective
when making gratuitous preachments
about controversies which,
as events have shown, can be
satisfactorily resolved by the students
themselves.

It is quite possible that a majority
of the student body finds nothing
wrong with faculty members entering
the fray in the present context,
but let faculty members thrust
themselves into what is essentially
a student controversy sometime
when their views are not shared
by the bulk of the student body,
and then mine will not be the only
voice raised in protest.