VICTORIA COLLEGE COURT OF CONVOCATION.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 3

VICTORIA COLLEGE COURT OF CONVOCATION.

Sir, —The attempt of Mr. C. J. Cooke (lion, secretary of the' Graduates' Association of Victoria College) to corrcct •my "facts" but furnishes complete confirmation of all the "facts"-111 my statement regarding tlio Court of Convoca-. tion that .matter. . It is true that tho Graduates' Association is riot an "elected" committee of the Court of Convocation; but Mr. Cooke is an innocent .abroad if he is not fully seized of the fact that the Courtof Convocation, the Graduates' Association, and the University Reform Association, though ostensibly three different bodies, are, really, worked by the'some-machinery. Even among the/bare dozen who mot some ten days ago and deliberated on weighty University matters under the "style" of Victoria University College Court of Convocation, the president and hon. secretary of the Graduates' Association were, if not among the moving, at least among the tameJy acquiescing spirits. Tho fact is that the Court of Convocation graduates in the Victoria College, or middle University, district, who are on th© Victoria College register) have had the right for the past seventeen years to elect three representatives to Victoria College Council. These representatives have, so far as I can recall, been nominated and elected without a contest for thoso. seventeen years, ostensibly by convocation, but really by a mere 'handful of memoers of convocation, almost all of whom are connected with th© College Council or the Professorial Board, or arc completely under the influence of those bodies. Mr. Cooke as good as admits the fact; and accounts for it by the fact that air most all members of convocation are "young graduates"! Perhaps Mr. Cooke can inform us- how it has come about that some 300 "young graduates" got th© right to elect bo many members to the College Council; and how, so far, by tho slip-shod manner of conducting the election, and by the practically complete usurpation of their function by a mere handful of moving spirits at Victoria College, they have been denied the privileges of electors! The most astounding revelation made by Mr. Cooke is. that apparently no official roll of the members of convocation is Per deos immortales, what a beautiful state of affairs! Nay. more —at long last—circulars are issued to electors whose addresses are known, and who are "likely" to attend! Well, well; if that is not giving the show completely away I_ should like to know what is ! By legislation (the Victoria University College Act) passed over a. year ago this body of youthful graduates, male and female,, some 300 in all, probably _ half of whom are not now resident in the Dominion, aro given the right_to elect four representatives to tho Victoria College Council—one more representative than previously. No official roll seems to be kept even of those graduates resident in the' Dominion I Four vacancies have occurred since the new Act was passed. There has been 110 contest. The whole thing worked by the great reforming spirits who run the court of un-convoked convocation! lam assured that they even had a hand in the pie in connection with the' election of representatives of secondary schools and of technical colleges; and some of them have been known to boast that thej; could in-! fluence the Government in connection with the appointment of its representatives! Now, let me say that, personally, I consider ©very member of the present council of the right type. They are all, I honestly believe, anxious to do what is right and best in the interests of higher education; I have reason to believe that several, if not all, of 'the representatives of convocation, would never have consented to their nomination if they had really known of the methods in vogue and influences used in connection with the election of representatives of convocation. —I am, .etc., FACTS.