Your editorial of 11 November
70 hit on many of the problems of
Student Council elections at the
University. However, although
party leaders deserve some blame
for the lack of candidates in some
elections, I believe you have missed
a number of points which place the
onus elsewhere.
First, many of the good
candidates are members of
honoraries on the Grounds; and
whether consciously or not, these
honoraries have encouraged these
people to wait for the spring until
the Honor Committee elections.
This same problem plagues all party
officers who search for candidates.
In addition, too many potentially
good candidates are waiting for
positions in the IFC, the U. Union
and other organizations.
Regardless of how early these
people are approached, they rarely
deign to consider Student Council.
The end result is that both parties
have 4 or 5 people running for
nomination in the fall and 14 or 15
in the spring after the losers have
been weeded out of the other
organizations. The Jefferson Party
and the VPP both had this
experience last year. Perhaps the
answer is to make Student Council
more enticing by making it more
effective.
Or perhaps the answer is to
encourage those members of
societies and organizations to
pocket their "Higher Ambitions".
The answer is not, however, and has
never been to contact the
candidates earlier in the year for
their answer is always the same -
"I'm waiting."
Quinn Spitzer
President
Jefferson Party
