University of Virginia Library

A Necessary Channel

Another meeting of the Board of Visitors
is almost upon us, (to be held this weekend in
Fredericksburg) and all of the old problems of
student communication with the Board linger
on, despite the current absence of agitation
for open meetings and the like. Student
Council President Ron Hickman and Vice-President
Jim Roebuck have been invited to
appear before the student activities committee
of the Board at Saturday's meeting, but there
is little to indicate that this invitation will
become standard procedure for the Board in
the future.

Obviously, channels for student communication
must exist with the Board of Visitors.
If the Council President becomes, in some
way, an ex-officio but non-voting member of
the student affairs committee, with due
reservations made for preserving necessary
prerogatives of privacy for the committee,
communication from the students to the
Board would be assured.

This leaves the thornier problem of
communications from the Board to the
students. In the past, the Board has always
made its actions known ex post facto, making
its decisions public the day after it meets. The
result is that student input into the decision
making process can only take the form of
complaints about what has been done. The
present system precludes any opportunity
for the students to offer constructive
suggestions for the Board's consideration
before it makes a decision.

The Board's agenda is determined by
President Shannon upon his review of
suggestions and requests made to him by the
University's administrative committees. In
most cases, the agenda is never made public.
We suggest that Mr. Shannon make an attempt
to brief the Council officers on the entirety of
the Board's probable agenda at least a week
before it meets. He could then decide with the
Council officers which items are relevant to
the student body and upon which student
comment would be relevant. These items
could then be debated by the Council at its
regular meeting, and its wishes in their regard
determined. The Council President would
then be able to make the prevailing student
opinion known to the committee at the
weekend meeting.

The Board of Visitors will probably not
like this idea any more than it liked the idea
of allowing the Council President to become a
full member. The Visitors' desire to keep their
decisions and deliberations private is understandable
in many instances. We trust that the
Council President would respect such legitimate
interests. We feel also that the Board
should have no fear of friendly scrutiny of its
actions when its actions are justifiable. In
short, we fail to see what the visitors are
afraid of.

The University stands to gain a great deal if
a working partnership among administration,
faculty, and students can be brought to bear
on the problems which confront us all. It will
gain nothing if the present atmosphere of
suspicion and ignorance is allowed to
continue. That atmosphere can only be
dispelled through frank and constructive
communication among all the parties concerned.