Student Council representatives will meet for the final time next Tuesday. They will reconvene next semester with a whole new class of first-year students to welcome. Photo by Scott Miles.

Having spent almost a month in office, Student Council will work through the summer to map out initiatives for the upcoming year to hit the ground running this fall.

Council’s major goals will be outreach and transparency, President Colin Hood said. In terms of outreach, Council will make a specific effort to target incoming first-year students when they arrive on Grounds.

“We’re going to be communicating with first-years so they understand what Student Council is and we’re getting ready to go with the Meet Your Council event in the fall,” Hood said.

Vice President for Administration Jen Bristol, meanwhile, has pushed several pieces of legislation through Council’s representative body to create new leadership positions and membership guidelines.

“My specific goals are definitely the committee member guidelines and making sure that we do have involvement and accountability on all sides.” Bristol said.

In particular, it is important to make sure Council members feel involved and connected to the organization, she said.

“We do have a membership chair and we are looking forward to Student Council solidarity and bonding,” Bristol said. “We hope that more member involvement will equal more production in the future.”

Bristol also said she hopes to encourage representatives to hold office hours and be more engaged during Council’s weekly meetings. In addition, she wants to encourage them to build connections between Council and the other organizations and schools of which they are a part.

“Everyone should know … what Student Council is, how Student Council is functioning, how their group can help Student Council and how Student Council can help them,” Bristol said.

Vice President for Organizations Evan Shields, meanwhile, said he plans to overhaul the appropriations process.

“With appropriations, we’re going to take a deep look at the formula and also the manner in which students apply for it on @UVA, and [we’re] really trying to simplify the system, make the formula a little bit more efficient in allocations and really find different ways to simplifying the online way in which you apply,” Shields said.

Furthermore, Shields hopes to change the format of the semiannual treasurers meetings so that Council can appropriately tailor the meetings to specific groups such as club sports, entertainment groups and those under the umbrella of the Minority Rights Advocacy Coalition. This way, Council can better inform CIO leaders about the available resources on Grounds, including the CIO consultant program, and how to use technology like @UVA.

“We want to make the process a little more intimate and conversational,” Shields said. “It’s not just going to be about appropriations anymore.”

Similarly, Shield said Council hopes to integrate new media into the appropriations process, Shields said.

“We’re doing educational videos that we hope will be engaging and will really educate and connect CIO leaders to the actual appropriations process and the reimbursement process, as well with business services, because I think that’s of equal importance to actually submitting a budget and going into hearings,” Shields said.

Council’s use of new media is, in fact, part of its new approach to outreach and transparency, Hood said.

“We’re headed in a new direction,” Hood said. “We’re more college-student-friendly in the way we deliver messages.”

Council members have been encouraged to create Twitter accounts that are synced to the Student Council website and they are regularly updating the Student Council Facebook fan page.

Additionally, StudCoLIVE, which enables students to visit Council’s website to watch meetings as they happen, was launched three weeks ago. Hood said Council is planning to implement a big publicity push for the service this fall.

Some students also could find the service useful for purposes other than increasing Council’s transparency.

“It’s also great for events like this Friday’s student memorial service,” Hood said in regards to the event being held today in honor of the six University students who passed away during the academic year. “It’s going to be convenient for students and family members who can’t make the event.”

Council will hold its last meeting of the semester Tuesday and will reconvene in September.

After spending a term focused on procedural issues, the Honor Committee’s executive board members said they plan to hold more conversations that will encourage students to think actively about the system during the fall semester. In addition, the Committee hopes to do more to accommodate minority groups, while increasing the flexibility of Commerce students’ exam schedules.

Committee Chair Charlie Harris said he believed all of the procedural changes were necessary and appropriately timed. Both those changes and the advantage of having several returning members will help the committee achieve its goals, he said.

“We’re going to take advantage of the experience we have and use it to reach outside our realm and really talk to students,” Harris said.

In particular, the executive board is emphasizing that different school representatives must have at least one engagement activity with their schools planned for the fall. Many plans will include forums, she said, similar to the one the Engineering School conducted this semester, Vice Chair for Community Relations Danielle MacGregor said. The Committee members, however, want to focus their message on what students think the honor system should be, rather than just discussing what the Committee wants the system to be, MacGregor said.

Vice Chair for Education Maggie Thornton added that the Committee is considering updating its definition of minority groups to include more than just students of color. A new definition could include students of different socioeconomic backgrounds, student-athletes and students who are not necessarily tied to central Grounds.

“Minority groups have felt, with merit, marginalized,” Thornton said. “We’re going to focus on making sure they’re drawn in.”

To ensure those minority groups are more educated about the honor system, members of the committee have been working on several different translations of their educational “green books,” which explain the system’s expectations of students.

These translations are just one of the Committee’s efforts to show it is dedicated to reaching out to people from all across Grounds, Thornton said.

“Ownership in honor is one of the big things we want to emphasize,” she said. “You can’t own honor if you don’t feel as if you aren’t involved, or if you don’t understand. We’re here to represent you and facilitate the things you want to do.”

Nevertheless, Thornton said it is important for the Committee to engage with groups that have constructive criticism to offer.

“The fact we’re engaging with these groups is healthy for the Committee,” she said.

Furthermore, the Committee is working to implement a flexible exam schedule for Commerce students. This change — which would be similar to the policy in place for the Law and Darden Schools — would enable Commerce students to choose what date and time they take their final exams.

“Because of [McIntire’s] strong support of honor and its relatively small amount of students, it would be the best place to try to implement this,” MacGregor said.

This proposal is waiting for approval, MacGregor said, but it could come into effect next spring. If all goes to plan, she said, a “flex-exam” schedule could possibly be established in the College, as well.