I have just read your editorial of May 1
in which you deplore the "Defeat of the
Surcharge" to the student activities fee,
which would have gone to benefit the
transitional program.
As the member of the Student Activities
Committee who made the motion resulting
in that committee's decision that it lacked
jurisdiction, I write to suggest that perhaps
you have overlooked a point of some
importance.
If SAC had passed on the merits of the
case, favorably or unfavorably, it would
have been asserting that this important
action of Council was subject to its review
and that on this significant matter it had the
right and power to interpose its judgment
between Council and the Board of Visitors.
SAC in fact, for reasons which I believe you
understand, had no such power and, in my
opinion, wisely said so.
What was involved was not a mere
technicality but the question of Council's
subordination to or freedom from review of
its actions by administrative committees. If
there is to be review it should be by the
proper body.
I should have supposed that Council and
your editors would have been pleased that
one such committee refrained from asserting
a control over student affairs which it
recognized it did not have.
