Anti-Council Bloc Asks Referendum

Direction of the anti-Council movement was yesterday taken over by a 10-man committee, which issued a statement demanding that the Council hold a referendum to see if students want to abolish it.

The Council's constitution requires it to hold a referendum if an amendment petition with 200 names is presented to it. The abolitionists claim they have 1500 names in support of their "amendment." Approval of two thirds of those voting is required for ratification.

The Council will wait until it is formally given the petition before it decides on the referendum. A sampling of Council opinion last night revealed that the referendum would indeed be held.

The abolitionist statement also called for a "representative body that will confine itself to airing undergraduate grievances." The committee is not making specific proposals for this new body, according to spokesman Merrill O. Young '51, because it doesn't want "to impose its private opinions on the College."

Favor Six Rules

In addition, the statement favored the six-rule plan for undergraduate organizations approved by the meeting of organization heads.

The full text of the statement is as follows:

1) We demand that the Council hold an immediate referendum to let the College say whether it will continue to put up with the present unrepresentative and officious clique.

2) We recommend, as a constructive measure, that the College be allowed to say if it wants instead a representative body that will confine itself to airing undergraduate grievances.

3) We urge the Dean's Office to adopt the modified six-rule proposal advocated in the CRIMSON.

4) When the referendum has been carried out, we will disband.

Members of the committee, the full name of which is the "Interim Committee for Council Abolition" are: Merrill O. Young '51, Alexander A. Mactaggart '50, David T. Owsley '51, Bayley F. Mason '51, John Goelet '53, Stephen O. Saxe '51, Hamilton S. Johnson '51, Alfred David '51, Guido Perera '53, James M. Storey '53.

Meanwhile, the Student Council committee, headed by Charles R. Brynteson '50, is near completion of its proposals of revision of the Council. A clause in the constitution required a committee to evaluate the Council in the spring of 1950.