Blue Monday

To in any sense represent undergraduate opinion, the Student Council must have support and direction from the student body electing it. This can better be accomplished by working in conjunction with the House-Committee of the House represented by the Council members, than by sporadic personal contact.

At present, there is not nearly enough communication between the Council and some of the House Committees. Some hold Committee meetings on Monday nights, the meeting-time for the Council. This automatically prevents the House Committee from holding the representative responsible. In other Houses, even though Committee meetings are on nights other than Monday, the Council representative is not a member of the House Committee.

This separation of the Houses and the Council is unfortunate. Where Council representatives are responsible to no organized group, election to that body has degenerated into a mere popularity poll. Unless representatives are somewhat coerced by organizational pressure, few will burden themselevs by making a concentrated effort to find out the needs and opinions of their fellow students.

If the Council representative operates in close conjunction with his House Committee, he can voice more than his own ideas and can better know and serve the sometime unique needs of his House, as in the case of Dudley. He can also stimulate Committee interest in the workings of the Council, a desirable objective.

In some houses, Kirkland for example, the Council representative is a fully integrated member of the House Committee. This should be done in all the Houses, even when it forces the Committee to change its meting from Monday night. The change of meeting day would also benefit the individual Committee members since they would be able to attend Council meetings when the agenda was of interest to them. The Council has many faults and limitations, but if it is to serve any useful function, its members must be made more responsible to those they represent.