University of Virginia Library

Council's Homework

We've referred several times in this column
to Student Council's failure to "do its
homework." Perhaps we ought to clarify what
we mean by the term when we use it with
respect to Council. Essentially, it means that
Council sometimes does its work sloppily or
not at all; not in the resolutions that are
passed, but in the planning that goes into
them and their subsequent execution of the
necessary follow-up work.

Often the Council will entertain and pass
motions that obviously came right off the top
of some member's head, with little or no
consideration given to practicality, little or no
effort spent in determining the true facts of
the issue, and no attempt to assess the
possible repercussions for Council's prestige
with the students. That's why, when something
as well done as the Student Rights
Report comes out of Council, we find it so
refreshing.

To further hamstring their efforts, Council
is sometimes incredibly remiss in following up
individual initiative of its members to fill the
communications gap.

All of which gives recalcitrant administrators
an opportunity to ignore Council's
resolutions, an opportunity which they
gleefully seize. They say you've got to go
through channels and conform to bureaucratic
etiquette. And if you don't - better luck next
time, son. Good intentions and good resolutions
are thwarted, often irrevocably.

Some Council members are very conscientious
about this matter; some of their
colleagues are less so. Their inefficiency only
hurts themselves, for it gives the administration
the chance to ignore the substance of
their proposals on the basis of technicalities,
its motions. For example, it is sometimes the
case that the person to whom a motion is
addressed does not even receive a copy of it
with some sort of official letter of explanation.
Council sends its minutes to a random
list of people around the Grounds, and
generally relies on The Cavalier Daily.