TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

In the words of its President, the Student Council is "a medium for bringing before the governing bodies of the University expressions of undergraduate opinion." Because in certain directions the Council has recently shown a tendency to procrastinate, undergraduate opinion has been forced to find other channels of expression--to wit: a printed broadside about non-House men. The very existence of this brochure is in itself a criticism of the Council, an indication that it does not completely fulfill its supposed function. Yet this apparent failure is more the fault of the Constitution which governs the Council than of the individuals who are its members.

Examination of this document reveals that among the seventeen members there must be "at least one representative from each of the House units, and two members from the non-House group, one of whom must be a commuter." The inference is that the other non-House man will not be a commuter, but a non-House resident. However, inasmuch as the undergraduates living in the Varsity Club are included in the non-House category, it is obvious that at election time a man from this small group will be chosen to represent all the resident non-House students. This is indeed unfortunate, for the Varsity Club man has not the same interests as the typical Apley, Dudley, or Claverly dweller, is not forced to "eat around" as Dean Hanford puts it, and therefore cannot he expected to appreciate the problems of such an existence.

At present the situation is far from satisfactory, but its solution is relatively simple. To insure the presence on the Council of a man whose interests are compatible with the majority of the non-House group only Article One, Section One of the Constitution need be changed. It should in the future require that there shall be on the Council one non-House man with no regular eating place, or if the lining-hall privilege is extended, it should require the presence of a non-House, non-club man. This change can be readily effected with the assent of two-thirds of the seventeen members, and once accomplished, it will do much to make the Council more representative.