Graduate students taking part in this week's referendum are doing more than casting a straw vote on the Vietnam war; the basic philosophy of the Graduate Student Association Council stands trial, and the Council's future direction hangs in the balance.

In its 14 years of existence, the Council has shied away from politics. The question now is whether the Council should commit itself, on behalf of the GSA members, on the war. Several of its members think so, and the issue has become the focus of much bitterness

Its leaders, including newly-elected President Paul Munyon, and past president Allen Parker, feel the Council shouldn't participate in political matters.

Aligned against them is Margaret Theeman and the Council's four-man social action committee, which she chairs. Miss Theeman wanted a referendum for all grad students.

She charges that Parker and the others have opposed her so that only the most conservative element of the graduate student population--those living in the graduate dorms and paying their dues to the GSA--would vote on the referendum.

Miss Theeman tried on February 5 to modify the referendum, which takes the relatively extreme position of requesting "immediate withdrawal," but was over-ruled.