Council Puts Off Final Decision on Class Committees

The Student Council last night postponed decision on revision of the Class Committee elections after an unexpected wave of protest over proposed changes.

Stephen L. Reynolds '55 and William E. Bridges '55 led complaints against planned assurance to each House of representation on the Class Day and Permanent Class Committees. David P. Bicks '55, formulated the issues before the Council and opposed them.

Bridges and Reynolds argued that House membership matters little in carrying out the duties of the committees. "After all," Bridges said, "elections are often unbalanced. But they would seldom be unbalanced in the same House and in the same way."

Bicks agreed with Bridges that the House is not the ideal basic unit for an election but countered that the Council faced two choices, Bridges' alternative being less wise.

"Either, as you say, we continue a general election in which the well-known name wins regardless of his individual contact with the class as a whole, or else we can break the class down so that members can elect someone who is perhaps not so well known generally from newspaper headlines, yet is thought well of in his own group," Bicks stated.

Bicks specifically mentioned last year's Permanent Class Committee election, when six men from Winthrop House, including the three class marshals, all of whom were football players, were elected.

"Whether they played football or not they were fine people," Bicks commented.

Reynolds parried that "Without exception last year's class from Winthrop was the most outstanding class ever. It has not been equalled in the whole House system in the last 25 years." Reynolds is from Winthrop House.