The Spike: or, Victoria University College Review, October 1916

College Notes

College Notes

Honorary Life Membership.

On looking through the pages of "Hermes," we see that Sydney University has conferred upon its students who are upon active service, the distinction of Honorary Life Membership. This seems to us a very graceful tribute, and one that would be highly appreciated by those past and present members of Victoria University College, who are upon active service. Prior to its incorporation the Students' Association made provision in its rules for Honorary Life Membership, but the rules bearing upon this were omitted when the Students' Association became incorporated. We think that the amendment of the constitution to provide for the admission to Honorary Life Membership of the Students' Association of Graduates and Undergraduates, who are at the front, would meet with the approval of all students, and, as a small mark of distinction, would be appreciated by the crusaders themselves. We hope that the suggestion will be taken up officially by the Executive, which will have plenty of time to bring forward a scheme by the date of the next annual general meeting.

The Franchise.

We omitted in the first number of the "Spike" to

Students' Association Executive, 1916.

Students' Association Executive, 1916.

report a motion, that came up for discussion at a special general meeting held early in the first term. The purpose of the motion was to extend the rules governing eligibility for membership of the Students' Association—the intention being that Freshmen, who had paid their subscriptions, should be allowed to vote at the annual meeting, and should be given a limited representation upon the Executive. Much that was said in favour of the motion was very true and sound. Such a reform would tend to increase interest among Freshmen in the work of the Students' Association: it would be only fair to extend to a large body of students the right to vote upon affairs that would intimately concern them. Nevertheless, an amendment to the motion revealed one vital weakness in the proposed reform. The amendment was that Fresh men should not be allowed to vote in the election for Life Membership, the reason being that they would not have that degree of knowledge of past students, which would enable them to form a judgment. The movers of the motion accepted the amendment, thereby revealing the fact that it was patent even to them that the Freshman would inevitably be incompetent to form an opinion upon many of the questions, that would arise for discussion. Other amendments restricted the scope for the motion still more, and finally, after it had been amended out of recognition, the motion was dropped. We think that every credit is due to those, who brought up the subject for discussion but our own view is that the change contemplated by the motion would have been a retrograde step.