Council Votes Committee to Study Smoker

The Student Council last night unanimously endorsed the revival of boxing as an intercollegiate sport, and created a committee to investigate modifying or curtailing the freshman smoker.

The smoker action followed a defeat, 10-3, of the motion of Paul L. Scher '57 to abolish the function outright. The group then passed unanimously a bill by Larry R. Johnson '58, calling for Council appointment of a committee of members of past Union and Smoker committees to recommend to next year's Union committee the results of its investigation.

Although the committee could theoretically advise that the smoker be continued without any change, the Council understood that the group would try to recommend either a changed smoker, or a substitute event.

Tradition Should Be Disregarded

The Johnson bill also stated that the Union committee should make its final decision about next year's smoker "in the light of the pros and cons, not in the light of tradition."

In voting on the smoker, the Council was largely guided by the need for maintaining a class function where students "could let off steam," yet where the tone was not one of "debauchery."

Before the vote, however, an invited visitor established that "the Casino has a better show,and Cronin's has better beer." Representatives from the Freshman Union committee also said that in an informal poll, four of their members had voted to keep the smoker, 11 to modify it, and nine to abolish it.

Following the vote it was learned that this year's smoker committee has as yet found no way to pay off the 200-odd dollars debt to the Union Committee and the Council.

The Council's action on boxing was, in effect, the approval of a 45-signature petition which will be submitted to the faculty board of athletics. At the meeting it was learned that the team, if it is formed, will as of now have only Syracuse as a prospective opponent.