Student Council met Tuesday at the Darden School to hear from U.Va. Students United and representatives from the Darden Student Association.
U.Va. Students United spoke to Student Council about its goal to create a public comment period at Board of Visitors meetings.
Second-year College student Nqobile Mthethwa said the group wants to have a two-hour period open to public comments at meetings of the Board of Visitors, requiring speakers to register online prior to the meeting and limiting each speaker to a five-minute time period.
“Meg Gould, [student member of the Board of Visitors], does a great job as our student representative,” she said. “But it’s one student representing thousands, and there’s only so much she can do.”
Second-year College student Ibby Han said other schools in Virginia, such as Radford University and Virginia Military Institute, have similar public comment periods at their respective board meetings.
“This is not uncommon,” she said. “We think that students deserve to be able to directly address the board within a reasonable time constraint.”
Han said U.Va. Students United is looking for general support from Student Council in their initiative.
Some Council members questioned the need for a public comment period when a student representative position to the Board of Visitors already exists.
“The challenge in a lot of this is being able to represent everyone’s voice,” Gould said. “[My role is] to provide a student perspective, not necessarily to represent every student’s voice.”
Gould said her position consists of conveying information to Board members throughout the year, not just in meetings.
“I do try to get any information that people come to me with to the Board of Visitors,” she said. “I think, for the public comment, it’s really determining what gaps this can fill.”
Mthethwa said U.Va. Students United has heard positive opinions from Board Members George Martin, Helen Dragas, Frank Conner, Allison DiNardo, Bobbie Kilberg and John Macfarlane, but has yet to elicit a response from the remaining Board members.
Council also heard from the Darden Student Association.
President of the Darden Student Association Heidi Davies, a second-year Business student, expressed concern about integrating Darden students into the larger University community.
“A big push for us this year is becoming more integrated with U.Va. as a whole,” she said. “We’re always looking for ways to strengthen our relationship.”
She said it is very rare to see undergraduate students at Darden, even though many events held at Darden are open to all University students.
“We have some classes now that are being held on the Lawn,” she said. “[But] aside from sporting events, we really don’t come down [to Central Grounds].”
She said adding elective classes on Central Grounds would better integrate Darden students with University life.
Davies also shared current initiatives going on at Darden with Student Council.
“The biggest and most exciting thing is our Dean search,” she said. “What I can tell you is that there are finalists, and we’re hoping to announce at the end of this year or early next year.”
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