COLUMN: "Is the Circus Leaving Town?"

From Elizabeth Hunt's "One Man's Meat," Spring '92 Neither does Yale. Stanford hasn't got anything like it. Or Columbia. Or Duke. Or Indiana University, for that matter. And throw in Michigan and Cincinnati, while you're at it. What has Penn got that none of these other schools have? University Council. Believe it or not, most universities in the United States don't have a single body of students, faculty and staff who meet regularly to advise their president directly on issues facing the campus. At Stanford, a powerful Faculty Senate hashes out campus issues and sends word to the president as to their wishes. They let a few students sit in, but they can't vote. No staff members attend. At Indiana, the Student Association occasionally dispatches a representative to discuss matters of importance with the chancellor or president. But it doesn't meet regularly with faculty and staff. Harvard's president gets his advice from the "Corporation," which sounds like something out of a John Grisham but is generally just eight old white guys who sit around and decide things. Of course, not one is a staff member or student. So it turns out our own University Council is special -- almost unprecedented -- and is a large part of the reason that the University recently earned distinction for providing the greatest student access to administration. Ask the students who serve on Council, and they'll tell you they already knew that, though. For two hours every month, these students sit around a big table and discuss the burning issues of the day with President Hackney, Provost Aiken and a couple dozen faculty and staff members. There's occasional speechifying and filibustering, but there are also oratorical gems and persuasive exhortations from all corners of the University. There are dull presentations and lively debates over issues as frivolous as bicycles on Locust Walk or as serious as racial harrassment. There's frequently confusion but rarely panic. Council is sometimes infuriating, often tedious and, once in a while, downright hilarious. But no student member takes it lightly. Ever. Faculty, however, are another story. They don't seem to appreciate what Council provides the University. Their attendance is very low: in a recent meeting, 17 of 47 faculty Council members were present, while 18 of 25 student members showed up. Many faculty Council representatives do not come even once during their terms of appointment, and those who do attend seem to think nothing of arriving late or leaving early. Of course, that's their business. If faculty do not want to take advantage of Council, it's no skin off students' noses, right? Wrong. Despite faculty's poor participation at Council, many of them are grumbling about the way the meetings are run. They think students play too large a role at the meetings. They think we grandstand. They think we trivialize issues (this from the people who brought you the issue of bicycles on Locust Walk). So faculty want to see Council modified. The Faculty Senate may soon vote to recommend that the Steering Committee of Council, which currently consists of nine faculty members and four students, be given Council's deliberative and advisory functions. The whole University Council, the circus of the stars, would only meet once each semester to hear what Steering has been discussing in closed meetings. This arrangement would work out beautifully for faculty, since it would mean that almost all their presence at Council would still be represented -- remember, they rarely turn out two dozen members at Council meetings. But for students, the results of such a modification would be devastating. Only a quarter of the twenty or so of us that regularly attend Council would be permitted at Steering meetings. The proposal to make Steering the advisory body to President Hackney will silence a chorus of strident student voices, belonging to students who have been taking full advantage of Council. It makes it hard to believe anybody other than faculty are upset by the mere fact that students have been expressing their views. Needless to say, student leaders are hopping mad about the suggestion to modify Council. Graduate Student Associations Council President Anne Cubilie believes the proposal "basically cuts students out of the picture." "Faculty are trying to solve the problem of their own lack of attendance by changing the structure of Council. They need to address the problem within their own constituency," Cubilie said. Undergraduate Assembly member Kirsten Bartok called the proposal "ludicrous." "As far as we can see, [faculty] don't even attend. They already outnumber us on Council, anyway. Making University Council [as a whole] meet only once a semester would drastically decrease student participation," Bartok said. Nevertheless, faculty remain adamant that change -- beyond better faculty attendance, mind you -- is in order. "Council should modify itself," said Faculty Senate Chair Louise Shoemaker. And at its April 15 plenary session, Faculty Senate may vote to recommend that Council do just that. But Council itself will then have to vote on the issue, and students and faculty may become deadlocked on the issue. In that case, staff and administration representatives may have to break the tie. Let's hope they realize the privilege of Council should belong to those who use it the most. After all, it would be a shame for the University to lose an asset as rare as Council. Then Princeton would be the only school in the Ivy League with students on the president's advisory board. We wouldn't want that. Elizabeth Hunt is a doctoral candidate in History and Sociology of Science from Bloomington, Indiana. "One Man's Meat" appears alternate Thursdays.