Council Body Urges Changes in Class Set-Up

Sweeping demands for reorganization of class elections, Class Day ceremonies, undergraduate class set-ups, and Album procedures came last night in a detailed, 30-page report issued by the Student Council's special five-man Committee on Class Affairs.

Council action on the proposed measures is certain either at the regular meeting Monday night or at a special session later in the week, President Edric A. Weld '46 stated. The report is the result of three months' work by the committee, which is chaired by Daniel P. S. Paul '46 3L, and includes Robert S. Leventhal '48, Thomas R. Morse '48, John McNulty '48, and Thomas L. P. O'Donnell '47 2L.

The report is divided into two sections, the first being a discussion of the findings and recommendations which are set forth in resolution form in the second half. It is this set of resolutions that will face Council action next week.

Election of class committees composes the main portion of the recommendations. Beginning with the choice of a Sophomore committee, a system of three bodies would be set up--Sophomore, Junior, and Permanent Class Committees. The Sophomore committee would not be chosen until the class has been in College three terms, in order to eliminate the election of a group on insufficient knowledge of candidates.

The report sharply censures the Council for its established election procedures, terming the handling of balloting "sloppy and disorganized," and "an outrage to any sense of craftsmanship and responsibility . . . for everybody concerned.

Hits Former Weakness

"One of the great weaknesses of undergraduate class activities in the past has been the selection in the freshman year by College officials on the basis of very inadequate information of a group of men who automatically are nominated to all class positions throughout their four years in College," it states.

The nominating committee for the Sophomore group would consist of the chairmen of the Union, Smoker, and Jubilee committees plus one man from each House and Dudley. These men would choose a slate of from 16 to 20 men, leaving the ballot open to further nominations by petition. Automatic positions on the ballot go to the nominating committee to forestall any electioneering in that group.

Abolition of the "preferential and weighted balloting" now prevalent, careful supervision of sealed ballot boxes, and the placing of candidates' pictures on ballots are proposed, to prevent "a minority group" from electing "a man into office on a small number of votes by capitalizing on the failure of the large group of voters who is any case will not indicate their preferences."

Junior elections would follow much the same rules, with a nominating committee composed of one man from each House and Dudley and the chairman of the Junior Class Committee. These nine will be on the ballot, in addition to 24 men they choose themselves, had any others nominated by petition.

Another Change

Another important change would be the choice of Class Secretary and Treasurer by the Permanent Class committee after its election, preferably from its membership, although the right is reserved to go to the class in general if no suitable man for either job is on the committee. Two Class Agents would also be picked by the Committee.

Vice-President Reynolds is criticized heavily in the Committee report. In connection with the Class Album, termed "one of the cornerstones of class unity," the withholding of the purveyor list, cause of a mid-summer storm, is condemned as inconsistent with "ethics." Reynolds refused to give Album advertising men a list of purveyors to the University, but "stated that he thought other sources of finding out University purveyors could be tapped."

Cash Nexus

Asserting that "the economic argument for the release of the purveyor list can be neither ignored nor denied," the report "finds it hard to square Vice-President Reynolds' position with his 'ethical' objections," and asks for a loan from the College as a temporary arrangement during the present inflationary period. Finally, the Committee recommends that the classes of '49 and '50 move to set up Album boards immediately.

Streamlining of the Class Day program is the third major feature of the report. Citing Class Day Week as an institution which "will contribute much towards kindling a warm college loyalty in the minds of the alumni of the future," the committee calls for absorption of the cost of Class Day by the College