University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Degenerate Conditions Ignored

Mr Weir's argument that State
funding of the University is
inversely proportional to sexual
activity in dormitories is like the
pre-teenage giggle: Look! Look!
Look! Sex! Sex! Sex! It is absurd
to suggest that men and women
abstain from life so that the
University can expand in order that
even more men and women can be
told by another Mr. Weir to abstain
(and so the cycle is started anew).
Instead of addressing more
anomalies, I prefer to comment on
an issue infinitely more important,
growth of the University.

9,000 students were enrolled
when I matriculated in 1968 Three
years later, that figure increased by
an astronomical 33% to 12,000
students. My dissatisfaction rests
not with more people per so. I am
disturbed that Mr. Shannon has the
audacity to tell us that the quality
of incoming students is the highest,
yet he omits telling us that the
real measure of quality, that of the
University environment, is near rock
bottom. Housing shortages, long
food lines, crowded classrooms and
the necessity of pedestrians to
dodge cars and bicycles are just a
few examples of degenerate
conditions.

Hope is not in sight and cannot
be forthcoming since the central
Grounds is already over burdened
with edifices. Attempts to expand
within, such as the new Educational
School, simply destroy vestiges of
openness (...Oh please, Mr.
Shannon, don't let us become a
little Manhattan). Residences and
businesses circumscribe the
University such that there is
nowhere to build except on some
distant tract of land, which is to
say, construct another university.

The conclusion is obvious.
Growth must cease or be reversed.
A healthy environment dictates
this. Yet, for some spurious reason,
Mr. Shannon has totally overlooked
the needs of our University and has
forced expansion upon us to meet
the external needs of the State.

The connection between this
lengthy aside and Mr. Weir's article
is that State funding must be
decreased to terminate Mr.
Shannon's decadent leadership. I
offer no comment as to whether
sexual activity should be
deliberately increased to validate
Mr. Weir's formula.

A Joke?

I always thought April Fool's
Day came in April, but apparently
not so, unless of course one
happens to believe that The
Cavalier Daily is a year-round joke.
I refer you to your miscellaneous
column of last week, in which was
printed daily advertisements
concerning mixers at Madison,
Longwood and Randolph Macon.

I realize in a town of
Charlottesville's caliber that your
people are hard-pressed to fill up
space, but you surely could have
chosen something better than ads
for mixers which were held last
week. Yes, its true-some of us
were disloyal and ignored the lure
of Homecomings at U.Va. and
headed down the road instead, only
to find we were 168 hours late.

Unable to admit that the C.D.
had committed 2 errors in the same
issue, some of us immediately
headed for another girl's school,
only to find that this time we were
169 hours late. So we got to laugh
twice at your joke.

Our thanks then for a wonderful
weekend, and the experience of
driving through nearly 200 miles of
lovely Virginia countryside, which
we were unfortunately not able to
see due to darkness. And just one
word of warning: any replication of
such a grave error will result in
cancellation of my subscription. So
beware. C.D..

James Anderson
College 2

Ed.)