Council Approves RUS Constitution

After turning down four previous proposals for a constitution for the Radcliffe Union of Students, the Radcliffe College Council has approved a new RUS constitution, Radcliffe President Mary I. Bunting announced yesterday.

The new constitution, which still must be ratified in a student referendum later this month, grants RUS' long-standing demands for independent legislative power and "provides the working grounds for negotiating the rest of our requests," RUS President Deborah Batts '69 said last night.

Under the new charter, RUS legislation "in areas affecting student life" does not require Administration approval to go into effect. The College Council--of which Mrs. Bunting is a member--still retains, however, a provisional veto: if any member of the council objects to an RUS action, the dispute will be submitted to a Review Board. Five students and four administrators will be on this board.

Other provisions of the new constitution include:

* A Joint Committee of six students and six administrators to "make recommendations to the College Council and the Administration." Mrs. Bunting said yesterday that she will "bring everything possible to the committee."

* Two student Delegates who will be invited to certain meetings of the Radcliffe Trustees and the College Council.

Two major issues were at stake in the constitution fight: student legislative power and student representation on the Council. The new constitution grants RUS requests on one point--independent legislation--but does not accept RUS' demand for permanent student membership on the Council.

However, Miss Batts emphasized that the constitution "does not in any way compromise our ultimate goals." Both she and Mrs. Bunting emphasized that the constitution "is not a finished product," and that it "provides the ground for future negotiations."

"We agreed on the things we could agree on," Miss Batts said last night. "We couldn't agree on permanent Council membership. So we decided to accept a temporary, informal clause. We will keep working for permanent representation. Meanwhile, we can go to the Council meetings as invited delegates and try to convince them to accept our requests.

Mrs. Bunting also said that the invited-delegate status might soon be changed. "The Trustees are sure that students should participate," she said, "but they want to experiment with the mechanics of the participation."

Mrs. Bunting, who will choose which Council meetings the student delegates may attend, said that she expects to "invite them to the majority of the meetings."

The new constitution also establishes a Judicial Board "to impose penalties...and take other action it regards as necessary" in matters of student discipline. The nine-member Board, with five administrators and four students, will have the power to impose social probation, but will not be able "to require students to withdraw from the College."

RUS will hold a special meeting this Friday to determine the details of the student referendum. "We've made a good start," Miss Batts said, "but we need student support in the referendum to keep RUS going."