University of Virginia Library

First-Year Council

The First-Year Council (the old First-Year
Committee) has been characterized in the past
by would-be politicos making a lot of noise
and little sense and by apathetic
representatives who midway through the
second semester still do not know where the
organization meets. This is a pity since the
Council could serve the first-year student in a
much more significant way than it has in the
past.

Last year the First-Year Committee was
scrapped for a more viable and powerful
First-Year Legislative Council and a First-Year
Judicial Council. Counselors who largely
engineered the switch along with members of
the regular Student Council were optimistic
about the chances for the first year group to
start to play a substantial role in determining
the direction of first-year dormitory life.

We are a little disgruntled a year after its
inception. Judicial Council functioned fairly
successfully although the burden for order
and discipline in the dormitory area still fell
on the shoulders of the hall counselor. We
hope that this year first-year students will
take more of this responsibility on their own
and will not rely on a second or third-year
student to play nursemaid to them.

We also hope that the newly elected
representatives to the First-Year Council will
make the organization an active and
productive one keeping the lines of
communication open between the Housing
and University Administration and their
constituents. Not much will be accomplished
again this year if one or two officers end up
with all of the workload and responsibility.
The dormitories are not always the most
pleasant place to live, but they could be
improved a tad if the members of the
First-Year Council would get off their rears
this year and do something.