{"id":3344,"date":"2015-11-12T00:19:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T05:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/college-council\/?page_id=3344"},"modified":"2019-03-13T15:12:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T19:12:42","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/college-council\/?page_id=3344","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of College Council\u2019s current roles were previously executed by other organizations, namely the Gargoyle Society. Unfortunately, not a lot has been documented about the College Council since the 1970s. Many Record articles exist, but no one has actually attempted to put together a comprehensive history. Perhaps this is something future Councils will consider. This is a brief rundown of why the Council was formed and some major changes that have taken place since.<\/p>\n

Before College Council, Class Presidents and Officers, student organizations like The Good Government Club, and The Gargoyle Society represented the student interests in advancing the College.<\/p>\n

Class Governance<\/h2>\n

Class governance is the oldest form of student government on campus. Each class elected officers and formed committees to organize social events, particularly to enhance interclass rivalries. Often, the seniors oversaw events; sophomores and first-years actually did the groundwork. Class government was and remains to be a good way to organize class events, but working well and consistently together proved to be a challenge for the classes.<\/p>\n

Prior to having an official student government, College meetings were held regularly to foster debate and action.<\/p>\n

Gargoyle Society<\/h2>\n

The Gargoyle Society, which was founded in 1895, sought to influence the campus in more ways than simply by organizing events. Their founding members explained: \u201cThe object of this organization shall be to discuss College matters, and take active steps for the advancement of Williams in every branch of College life and work, and to exert itself against anything which it considers detrimental to such advancement.\u201d As a senior honor society, Gargoyle annually inducted its own new members, as it still does today, rather than employing a campus-wide lottery.<\/p>\n

Early Gargoyle projects included promoting healthy class rivalry and getting the student body to embrace the College\u2019s Honor Code, which had been adopted by the Class of 1896, but was treated with indifference by incoming students. Another Gargoyle focus was promoting athletics.<\/p>\n

At the time, the College did not fund athletic teams, so each team had its own managers, which collected taxes from classmates to fund the athletes. This led to inconsistent leadership and many unpaid pills and began eroding the College\u2019s reputation. Gargoyle therefore created the Athletic Council, which enabled systematic auditing of teams\u2019 accounts, improved facilities like Weston Field, and organized to encourage and enable alums and current students to support the school\u2019s athletic endeavors.<\/p>\n

In the early 1900s, Gargoyle also worked to facilitate student employment and created various committees to investigate other campus issues. However, \u201cthe charge had been brought more than once that Gargoyle was seeking policy change and that legislative functions belonged to an elected, not a self-perpetuating body,\u201d (Gargoyle, 28). These Gargoyle initiatives were eventually taken over by the Student Council and, later, College Council. The most important is the Student Activities Tax (SAT).<\/p>\n

Student Council<\/h2>\n

In June 1913, the students gained control over the finances of their extra-curricular activities through the Non-Athletic Council. Stephen Phillips \u201975 explains, \u201cAnother step [in the process of self-government]\u2026 came from Amherst. A number of Amherst men managed to slip into the Williams-Amherst football game at Weston Field without paying for their seats. The Record printed on December 4th a letter received from the Amherst Student Council which contained an effort to reimburse the Williams Football Association for its loss in revenue. This generous offer must have impressed Williams men with the integrity of the Amherst Council, if not of the Amherst football fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, after much deliberation by a committee chaired by Phinneas Baxter (who became the valedictorian of his class\u2026 Baxter was also Senior Class President, President of the Gargoyle Society and the Student Council, Editor of both the Williams Record and the Gulielmensian, and Phi Beta Kappa), President Garfield and the Trustees approved Baxter\u2019s committee\u2019s plan for the new Student Council on May 7, 1914. The Student Council was officially put into effect by a vote at a College meeting on May 15, 1914.<\/p>\n

The Student Activities Council was founded in April 1934 and passed its recommendations onto the Council for approval and was one of the powerful organizations, along with the Inter-Fraternity Council.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate Council<\/h2>\n

1934 was a pivotal year for student government and dealt with abolishing the Chapel and Latin requirements. Specifically, the Student Council was reformed and became the Undergraduate Council to combine the work of the Inter-Fraternity and Student Councils. According to Phillips, \u201cIts powers were those of legislation and enforcement of all extra-curricular activities which were within the control of the undergraduates acting collectively\u2026 the Student Activities Council had the power of legislation on all activities of the non-athletic organizations on the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Structurally, an Executive Committee was also formed and charged with serving \u201cas an intermediary between the student body, faculty, administration, and Trustees and an entity directly responsible for all undergraduate legislation\u201d (Phillips, 51) consisting of four voting members: the President of the Garfield Club (non-fraternity), Presidents of the Undergraduate and Student Councils, and the Editor-In-Chief of the Record; and four non-voting members: the Presidents of each class.<\/p>\n

College Council (CC)<\/h2>\n

In the early 1950s, the Garfield Club disbanded and the fraternity policies on campus were under attack. In addition, with the dissolution of the Garfield Club, representation was based on social affiliations; those who were not members of fraternities were left without representation. The shift to a College Council included the Presidents of the houses rather than the fraternities to ensure better representation of the campus. \u201cThe Place of the Social Council in the proposed College Council System was not determined by a desire to ruin the fraternities, for we agree that \u2018fraternities have a rightful place on the Williams campus.\u2019 What we do not believe is that they should be given a predominant part of the political activity of the community. The committee does not wish to change the social system with legislation; it does intend to make the political setup on the campus reflect the fact that there are 1,000, rather than 600, Williams students,\u201d (Phillips, 89). This new structure incorporated:<\/p>\n