RUS and Trustees: Same Old Song

The Radcliffe Union of Students and the Radcliffe Trustees met for two hours of heated debate last night and finally turned to the formation of another committee as the solution to their problems.

Forty RUS members gathered in Cabot Hall to hear Radcliffe President Mary I. Bunting and nine other Trustees explain why the Trustees have turned down four student attempts to present an acceptable RUS constitution.

When the meeting was over, the two groups agreed to form a joint committee to draft a new constitution. The committee will meet this week and will try to have a revised constitution ready for Administration approval by May 6.

The two hours of discussion revolved around the same issues that have plagued RUS-trustee negotiations since last November:

* "Autonomy" for RUS. Cliffies were seeking the power to "legislate in matters of student interest" subject to an administration veto.

* RUS representation on the College Council--Radcliffe's version of the Harvard Corporation.

Stalemate

Argument about "autonomy" quickly reached a stalemate. Robert H. Gardner, Treasurer of Radcliffe, raised legal objections, saying that the College Council was forbidden by law to give away any of its governing power. Cliffies quickly disagreed, pointing out that the Council had granted limited power to many other College governing committees.

Tempers occasionally flared as talk turned to student membership on the Council. RUS had originally requested four voting seats on the Council. After a student-Trustee conference in February, RUS had modified its request to two non-voting seats.

Trustee objections

Trustee objections to the non-voting members were:

* Many of the Council items--especially routine business affairs--would not be "of interest" to students. Cliffies countered by saying that they would attend only the Council meetings that concerned them.

* Council membership is not "necessary." Trustees said that the students could effectively influence college government by participating in administrative subcommittees. A Trustee's suggestion that "student sentiment was accurately represented on the Council by Mrs. Bunting and Dean Elliott" was greeted with hoots and hisses.

* Student membership on the council would restrict the Council's "freedom of discussion" and would put unnecessary responsibilities on the students. Thaddeus R. Beal, a Council member, said that "we are excited that you are interested, but there are some things you are too young to do."

Cliffies argued that their goal was not to control the Council's decisions, but to represent one more point of view. "If we wanted to run the college," one said, "we'd ask for twenty voting seats. What we want is to have student opinion represented in decision-making."