What is the Executive?

Freshers at the beginning of each year may well ask: What is the Executive? Briefly, it consists of the elected representatives of the whole body of students who are entrusted each year with the management of a large sum of money belonging to such students and of their general interests and affairs in so far as they relate to student activity. The Executive is in the nature of a trustee of the moneys placed in its hands each year for the use and benefit of students generally, and it is trustee likewise of the name of the Association which should only be used on legitimate occasions and for legitimate purposes when it can truly be said to be acting in a manner in accord with the views and desires of the majority of the students which it (supposedly) represents. From this it follows that the Executive should be in constant contact with student opinion as expressed in its outward manifestations—alas, often too few—or as implied in the conduct, active or passive, of the student body. Let it be made clear that an Executive will appreciate and be grateful for any indications of the views and desires of the student body as a whole, for general apathy in the absence of a clear direction one way or the other may often lead to misinterpretation and undesirable action.

In addition to the fostering and encouragement of the various affiliated clubs and societies, there are a number of activities that have come to be regarded as part and parcel of our student life—Salient, Cappicade, Extravaganza, Capping Procession and Ball, Tournaments, Undergraduates Supper, (to mention but a few of them), are now so firmly rooted in our daily life that their absence would cause a gap not easily replaced. It is such matters as these which, I feel, the Association looks to the Executive to effect and perfect—not to mention, of course, the other and no less important duties of maintaining and improving student amenities both cultural and recreational in the College, and of protecting the students interests in relation to University and Civic authorities, and generally ensuring that their point of view is adequately and consistently represented. These are matters about which (I hope) there would be little argument, and no hesitancy in their fulfilment by an Executive.