Council May Change Rules For Petitions

A complete revision in rules for filing undergraduate petitions is under Student Council consideration, it was learned yesterday. The suggested changes stem from recent recommendations by Dean Watson.

Watson's proposals include 1) raising the minimum number of students who must sign a petition from 10 to 25; 2) providing a 48 hour "cooling off period" before circulating a petition; 3) making certain that there is some public announcement of controversial petitions; 4) Requiring that a petition be addressed to a specific organization; and 5) restrieting the length of petitions.

Marshal Elections Cause Action

The Dean's recommendations were spurred by the petition which questioned this year's Class Marshal elections, commented Edward L. Croman '60, President of the Student Council. "Petitions such as this one," he said, "can now be drawn up by a group of 10 students and distributed immediately after Dean Watson's approval."

Since there is no public discussion of most controversial petitions, an elected Marshal "had no idea the petition even existed until after it was in circulation," Croman noted. "He had no chance to defend himself before most students had seen the petition."