THE "FIRST year experience" isone of those buzzword phenomena that is tossed around at the University along the same lines as "student self-governance" and "community of trust." Though it comes with no shortage of definitional baggage, there is a unique, concrete occurrence that every University student experiences during their first nine months in Charlottesville. Tomorrow, polls will open for the annual fall elections. On the ballot is a referendum for an initiative that would enfranchise the First Year Council president (FYCP) and transfer student liaison (TSL), two advisory positions that currently sit with voice but no vote on Student Council. Though proponents of the measure argue that the first-year class deserves a voting representative on Council, this logic breaks down when the entire system of representation is examined. The measure should be rejected by the student body this week.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should hasten to add that three years ago I served as the FYCP on Student Council and was subsequently active on Council for the two following years as a committee chair. My experience as the FYCP, plus the knowledge derived from a few subsequent years on Council has colored my own perspective in a way that I believe is relevant to this initiative.
In the second or third week of school, RAs gather their halls and suites together to elect a single representative to FYC from each floor. (It gets slightly more complicated in Hereford, Brown and the International Residential College, but the proportion is about the same.) These 80-or-so FYC "representatives" then elect a slate of officers from their own ranks two weeks later. To be on the ballot, one must gather 200 signatures from their first-year peers. The president then serves as the chair of the FYC and leads that organization in the same manner that any president administers any other special status organization or CIO of similar size. The one distinction is that the FYCP also joins the Student Council meetings every Tuesday evening and enjoys the privilege of participating in debate, but may not vote.
Student Council is composed of representatives who are elected in each of the schools of the University according to population proportion. Because incoming first years do not have the opportunity to elect their school representatives, the FYCP has a chair at the table with the other representatives. Accordingly, he serves more as intermediaries between the FYC and Council than as an elected representative to the body.
The FYCP is not elected by popular vote of the first-year class. They are not accountable to their constituency through any direct electoral mechanism. It is difficult to construe this arrangement as a system of representation for disenfranchised first years. Instead, the FYCP acts as a mouthpiece on Student Council through which the pressing issues of the class can be presented. Giving this individual a vote does not make sense considering the role they play on Council and would alter the balance of representation on Council on every other issue that did not specifically deal with first years. If the FYCP is a nursing student, for instance, the Nursing School would double its school's representation on Council. Proponents say that the same thing would happen if the Student Council president (who also has a vote) were a nursing student. However, the executive members of Student Council are elected at large by the entire student body, while the FYCP is not.
This debate reminds me of an example from three years ago. That September, I attended my first Student Council meeting as the FYCP. There it was announced that an ad hoc committee comprised of administrators was recommending that the Alderman/McCormick housing option for admitted first-year students be eliminated from the housing application. The result would be that students could no longer choose between New and Old Dorms when they arrived.
This was preposterous! Nobody had asked the first years, yet this issue dealt directly with first-year students! A poll was taken by FYC reps, which I presented to Council. It showed that first years preferred the status quo by a 10-1 margin. However, after focus groups of randomly selected first years discussed the issue in house council meetings, it was found that the margin reversed itself. Over time, it became clear that as students discussed the issue and learned more about how the University worked, they tended to reverse their position. Had the vote been taken during my first meeting, my inexperience would have contributed to a hasty decision. Instead, wiser minds than mine prevailed.
The point is that Student Council should -- and currently does -- have a mechanism for registering first-year opinions on issues that affect the University community. However, this should not disrupt the balance of representation on Council. Fears of upperclassmen patronizing first years through Council resolutions are quickly put to bed when one considers that all they have to do is wait. After all, that class of first years will have the upper hand long after we oppressive upperclassmen have moved on. Vote no on the First Year Council president and Transfer Student Liaison referendum question.
(Preston Lloyd is a former First Year Council President and former Student Council Committee Chair. His columns usually appear Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)
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