University of Virginia Library

SAC And The Surcharge

The proposed $2.50 surcharge on the
student activities fee which Council passed to
support the transition program approaches the
first hurdle on the bureaucratic obstacle
course today. If it is ever to become reality, it
will have to be passed by the Board of
Visitors. Board approval will depend greatly
on President Shannon's endorsement, and
President Shannon will probably require the
approval of SAC before he approves the idea.
SAC, which will consider it today, thus has
the power to effectively derail the surcharge's
chance for implementation.

When the transition program was endorsed
by Mr. Shannon earlier this spring, he
indicated that the University would not have
the funds available to support it, and that its
implementation depended on the ability of
the students to get up the money for it. The
donation campaign has not provided the
necessary amount, so it looks now as if the
program will have to be restricted to a smaller
number of students who will spend as much
time working as studying. The financial
problem will make it less effective. The
students who will enter the University under
this program come from underprivileged
backgrounds. They are already familiar with
menial work; they ought to be able to devote
full time to their studies.

If $2.50 were added to every student's
activity fee, approximately $23,000, would be
added to the transition fund's coffers.
Concurrent with it would be a $7,000 deficit
that the University would run in paying the
surcharge for scholarship recipients. But that
deficit could be refunded from the total sum
collected, leaving the transition fund with
$16,000 for use this summer. — a sum that
would at least guarantee the existence of the
program.

SAC and the Board of Visitors will have to
swallow what to them will seem pretty radical
ideas before they pass the proposal. Council
has never taxed its constituents, and that is
what this measure amounts to. There are,
however, some compelling reasons to allow it
in this case.

In the first place, the Administration has
endorsed the concept of a transition program,
but has pleaded poverty and asked the
students to come up with the money. But if it
defeats the surcharge, it denies the students
the only practical way to raise the funds. We
wonder how well the University would fare if
it had to depend on contributions rather than
state tax revenues. We don't feel that too
many Virginia residents would voluntarily
cough up the $5. or so that it presently costs
them to maintain the University. Neither does
the state. To raise money it levies taxes from a
broad spectrum of people, because this is the
only efficient and practical method to do so.
Council is trying to do the same job, and it
needs the same abilities.

Moreover, Board approval of this measure
will not really give Student Council the power
to tax its constituents. Council is an advisory
body to the President. It has, in this case,
advised the President that a surcharge would
be the best way to raise money that Mr.
Shannon asked the students to provide. Its
advice could be accepted this time without
making it necessary for the Board to accept it
in the future. The Visitors would still retain
their taxing power.

Undoubtedly, the surcharge would be
properly construed as a Council measure
which never would have been effected
without Council action. But Mr. Shannon has
repeatedly, in word and action, indicated that
Council is the proper channel for making
student wishes known. He has repeatedly
expressed his desire to augment the prestige of
the Council by refusing to deal with other
groups on less substantial issues and forcing
those other groups to work to get Council
endorsement. There is no question but that
Mr Shannon considers Council the representative
organ of student opinion.

We feel therefore, that SAC and Mr.
Shannon should have no compunction about
endorsing this measure, and that their
endorsement should carry the matter through
the Visitors meeting in June. (A date,
incidentally, which would make it very easy
to defeat the matter and avoid the consequences
of student reaction.) The Administration
has given lip service to the concepts of the
transition program and an influential Student
Council. Now it has an opportunity to back
those words with real support. We look
forward to seeing how the matter is handled.