Experience

All undergraduate organizations have a common problem, that of experience. No sooner has one class learned to direct student activities than it must retire to prepare for theses, general exams, and graduation. Each year, a new group of leaders must begin all over again, relearning what has been learned many times over.

For the Student Council, however, this problem is even more severe, since its election system provides few men who really have sufficient experience to run for executive positions in the fall of their junior year. According to Richard M. Sandler's report to the 1952 Council, almost all of the eight House representatives are generally juniors, and are likely to have been on the Council for less than a term when executive elections are held. That leaves only the sophomore elections to bring men into the Council at least a year before they are eligible for the highest executive posts. And there are only two men elected from that class.

Sandler's solution is to raise the number of sophomore representatives, and abolish the junior class elections altogether. The first half of this proposal is an obvious remedy. But why the second half?

If this year's Council passes the proposal without change, it may very well find the plan is self-defeating. For it would force the four sophomore representatives to run for re-election in the Houses during their junior year, thus greatly lessening their chance of remaining on the Council. As long as there are junior class elections, men elected by the class in their sophomore year are much likelier to stay with the Council until it is time to choose officers. Thus, only by retaining junior class elections can the Council be reasonably sure of having experienced men available for officers' positions.

What, then, are the arguments for eliminating the junior class elections? One is that there are too many juniors and seniors on the Council already--most of the appointed members are upperclassmen--and that eliminating two juniors would redress the balance. Another is that the Council's total membership should not be increased lest it become unwieldy. But the necessity of leaving open channels by which experienced men can be re-elected far outweighs the other considerations. The Council needs more such members, and it should not hesitate to expand itself to get them.