University of Virginia Library

Big Shoes To Fill

When Rick Evans ran for Student Council
as a second-year man it was a radical thing to
do. When Rick Evans ran for President of
Student Council in the middle of his third
year it was a radical thing to do. Radical and
unprecedented or not, though, he won in
both cases, and he was re-elected to the
Presidency earlier this year.

It is highly appropriate that the symbol of
the Student Council for the past two semesters
attained his position in an unprecedented
fashion, for it was during his tenure
that the Council assumed an unprecedented
role. It was during his tenure that the Student
Council woke up to the reality of modern
times, accepted that reality, and assumed a
progressive attitude appropriate thereto. It
was during his tenure that the Student Council,
originally formed to fight the coeducation
of the University, first undertook anything of
more than casual interest. It was during his
tenure, for example, that age-old regulations
were uprooted, archaic principles were challenged,
useless "tradition" was scrutinized -
all of which had begun at other universities
several years before. It was during his tenure
that the stage was set for a new day for the
University, a day in which, for the first time
in memory, it might resemble the academical
village based on the illimitable freedom of the
human mind its founder dreamed of.

It would be absurd to suggest that Rick
Evans was responsible for the Student Council's
new energy, but it would similarly be
absurd to try to divorce him and his influence
from it. We recall when he was viewed
suspiciously as a radical. Today impatient
radicals see him as a brainwashed, overcautious
arm of the administration. His has
been a tortuous tenure, for himself and for
the Council. It has hardly been free from
error, but here we tolerate that, and his
successes far outweigh it anyway. And he was
certainly a dynamic chairman.

Those who know Rick Evans best know
that he is an unhesitating spokesman for
whatever he is convinced is right, that he is
disconcertingly rational. Those who know him
best know that as President of Student Council
he was ever guided by a thorough and
genuine concern for what is best for the
University and for its students today and in
the future. He was ever cautious to preserve
the good of the past, but he never shrank
from challenging the bad.

The President of the Student Council has
an incredibly narrow line to walk, a hopelessly
gaping gap to bridge, both between student
militants and reactionaries and between students
and administrators. We hope Rick
Evans' successors can walk that impossible
line and bridge that vitally crucial gap as well
as he did. We hope they will feel and display
the love for the University and its welfare he
feels, for only then can we rest assured that
our government is in reliable and desirable
hands.

His example will be a hard one to follow.
We hope his successors will have the time, the
energy, and, above all, the will to try.