EDITORIAL: U. Council needs major reform

The body's effectiveness is hampered by problems at every level of operation. From insufficient consultation to low attendance to poor representation, the body is plagued by problems at every level. In theory, Council should be a valuable advisory tool for administrators, integral to the decision-making process. Instead, it stands now as a mockery to the democratic process. In order to shift the current power structure out of the hands of a few top executives, administrators must start providing Council committees with current information and charging them with real issues. For instance, the Facilities Committee should come to sessions with a comfortable working knowledge of the latest updates to the Facilities Master Plan -- which governs the future of University construction -- and it should play a role in decisions such as whether to move the Faculty Club to Sansom Common. More generally, Council members must start improving their attendance. Although it looked like members were finally getting their acts together at last semester's special session on the Trammell Crow outsourcing plan, no more than 30 of the 90 students, faculty members, staff and administrators showed up at last week's meeting. Even since the passage of a resolution lowering quorum, Council has had trouble meeting the minimum number of members necessary to conduct official business. And for the body to be most effective, members should truly represent the dynamics of the University community. The recent addition of a seat for the United Minorities Council was a step in the right direction. The Undergraduate and the Graduate and Professional Student assemblies shouldn't necessarily receive an automatic number of seats -- especially when those representatives don't show enough interest to attend the monthly sessions. Rather, only those student leaders who demonstrate a visible commitment toward working through important issues should earn membership. If Council's current structure persists, the body may as well be dissolved. But given that Council could provide a path toward meaningful change, in addition to serving as a check for the actions of the central administration, it is worth looking at ways to restructure the body from the ground up.