RUS Effectiveness

THE RADCLIFFE UNION of Students (RUS) is the one campus women's group with the wide constituency and the financial resources to serve as an effective women's advocate, but this year internal organizational problems threaten to cripple the group's ability to act meaningfully.

RUS has not been able this year to generate enough student interest in its operations to fill its 38-member legislature. Ten seats remain open, and only Lowell and Mather Houses had enough candidates for representative posts to require general elections. Leaders of the group have charged each other with inadequate preparation and publicity for the elections.

Last year RUS expanded its legislature in an effort to make the group more representative and more powerful. But making the changes on paper is not enough; the RUS leadership has not yet shown that it can reach the students it represents.

RUS is allowed to charge undergraduate women five dollars on their term bills because the group supposedly watches out for women and presents programs for their benefit. But the poor response to the elections and last year's recommendation by the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life to phase out the term bill fee gradually shows that many students are skeptical about the need for RUS and the group's ability to fulfill its goals.

Women have a stake in seeing that RUS operates effectively. Unless they write letters requesting refunds, all women contribute to the $12,000 RUS collects in term bill fees, and they have a right to expect some visible results. Nor can women afford to let their primary advocate stagnate in inaction and unresponsiveness.