Over the next week or so, the undergraduate student government will be interviewing and appointing representatives for various committees of campus-wide importance. Currently, this involves 66 students on 20 different committees; the body of committee representatives outnumbers ASCIT officers and is larger than any House government. There are many schools with honor systems, and there are even schools with comparable housing arrangements, but the privilege afforded to the student body in these committees is unparalleled.

Students read freshman applications and participate in admissions decisions. Students vote on reinstating students who become academically ineligible. Upperclass merit award applications are read by students and they vote on the recipients. When tuition was raised this past year, students sat on the committee that reviewed and approved the amount. When changes in health insurance were being discussed last year, students helped review consultant reports and helped write a set of recommendations sent to President Baltimore. When the P/F policy was changed this year, students participated in the discussions. Students preview and help choose the performances that are held in Beckman Auditorium each year. A student currently sits on the committee trying to decide what public art piece will replace Vectors.

There are other institutions where students participate in some of these activities, but at none of those universities do the students have the sovereign power to choose their own representatives. At most schools, the admissions office will pick and choose its own students, the Deans will nominate exceptional students for various positions, or administrators will conduct the interviews. At Caltech, student leaders do the interviews, and no administrator tells us who we can or can not have on a committee. The privileges of student representation at Caltech are truly unique, and are an integral part of the tradition of student self-governance at Caltech.

Compared with the traditions of the honor system and the student houses, committee representation is a rather new phenomenon. The roots of our current system can be traced back to April 19, 1967. On that day, the newly elected ASCIT President, Joe Rhodes, called a Corporation meeting. 400 students gathered in Beckman Auditorium and passed several important resolutions. One of the resolutions asked for student representation on all faculty committees that were relevant to student life. The Faculty Board accepted the proposal soon after and the undergraduate student body was soon placing representatives on 15 separate committees.

It’s not just the student aspect of committees that is unique. The fact that Caltech is run by so many committees is indicative of a rather unique administrative structure. Although we like to berate “the administration”, there is no single entity we can blame for all our troubles.

The Caltech administration is relatively small in comparison to the $2.5 billion in assets that they manage. Just as we have more homework than we can finish alone, the administration has more under their control than they can possibly pay close attention to. Their solution is the same as ours: collaborate. Committees of students and faculty give their opinions and contribute their time to play an integral part in the functioning of this Institute.

Students see this system and believe that we have some sort of unalienable right to be involved in every decision, but we would be hard-pressed to find this guarantee on paper, and this is certainly not the case at other schools. The truth is, things are handled this way more out of necessity than principle. The administration collaborates with us because we have something to offer. We are smart, responsible individuals, and we often care more about these issues than faculty or administrators do.

This past election season, more students ran for ASCIT offices than ever before. I urge those students who may not have won elected offices to sign up for committee positions outside SAC 33. These are the front lines of student-faculty-administration relations, and the student body needs responsible people to represent their views. Although it is one of the newest aspects of student government at Caltech, it is quickly growing to be one of the most important. Sign up now!