The Executive last year used the pre-examination turmoil to unobtrusively appoint a fresher to their number. This co-option is disturbing for two reasons.

First, the co-opted member, Miss Jill Shand, is a first-year student. How is it possible for the executive to bypass the hundreds of senior students who would, by their experience alone, be more capable to handle the cultural affairs portfolio?

Second, Miss Shand did not stand for any executive position in the June, 1962 elections. Why were people, who did take the trouble to offer their services, passed over?

Murray Rowlands, a third-year student, missed narrowly as capping controller; Ralph Magnusson, Peter McKinley, Bill Dwyer (who collected 400 votes as runner-up presidential candidate) and John Broadfoot were not approached. Again, why?

The only justification for Miss Shand's selection is that she moved in the exclusive arty circles. But why pick her out? How many other students, all engaged in the university's cultural life and been at Vic. for two or three years, have better claim to the position?

If Miss Shand thought students would have confidence in her, she could have stood at the elections, either against Con O'Leary for the cultural job or for any other position. But this she did not do. One can only deduce that she had a change of heart within two months—or that the executive wanted someone of their own persuasion, a nice, safe, doesn't-speak-at-the wrong-time person.

—R.J.B.