Commonwealth Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam held a meeting with student leaders Wednesday to discuss problems on Grounds which included sexual assault, the recent violent arrest by ABC officers, the state drinking age and the new affordable excellence model.
Northam said he wanted to hold the meeting to get the chance to hear from the people experiencing many of these issues at the University.
“There have been some issues with the ABC and sexual assault on campus and the high cost of higher education,” Northam said. “I like to come and talk to the students that are experiencing these different issues and hear their thoughts.”
He asked Student Council President Abe Axler, a second-year College student, to put this meeting together with students on Grounds. Axler said it was helpful to have an opportunity to voice concerns to the lieutenant governor.
“What I always appreciate is when people come and ask us our opinion,” Axler said. “This shows the commitment of the Virginia executive branch to communicate with U.Va students.”
Among those who participated in the discussion was third-year College student Melanie Witten, the coordinating chair of United for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity. In the leadup to the meeting, Witten said she hoped to talk to the lieutenant governor about her ideas concerning the affordable excellence model.
“As a representative for UFUSED, I will present both the possible merits and the possible challenges this new model may pose,” Witten said in an email. “There are many factors that will go into the success or failure of the plan, thus it is difficult to cast a completely positive or negative judgment on the impact this model will have. We have quite a few concerns and we really think there may be some better solutions.”
Northam began the meeting by talking about the University’s new tuition model for its Affordable Excellence program. He said all kinds of diversity are important for a university, and further that he believes that if an institution can lower the cost of education the school is likely to have greater diversity.
“We first started to talk about the high cost of education and we all agree that there should be more support to better fund institutions of higher learning,” Northam said. “What makes a college or university strong is to have a diverse group of students. A lower cost of education would increase the diversity of students.”
However, Northam said that as a representative of the Commonwealth government, his main role in this meeting was to listen to the students and to understand their experiences.
“I represent the commonwealth so I am a listener,” Northam said. “My goal was to come and listen to the students goals and concerns. To talk about sexual assault and the students interaction with ABC is important to me. Our main message is in the way I ended the meeting. I admire the students so much because you are smart and articulate and have great ideas. We need to hear these ideas because we as your representatives work for you.”
Witten said students at the meeting were able to discuss socioeconomic issues at the University with the Northam.
“We talked in great detail about Affordable Excellence and the peril of low income students at U.Va,” Witten said. “There were concerns about people who are just above the middle income threshold who may still be unable to afford college but would not qualify for AccessUVa. [Axler] voiced his concern, and I concur, that low income students have a very different experience at UVa, which should be addressed.”
Witten also said the forum to talk about the issues of this year were necessary and that she felt Northam was helpful.
“He seemed to understand the frustrations students have when attempting to change policies and precedents at the University and statewide,” Witten said. “Although it should not have taken this long to deal with the issues we've had this year, perhaps we can use them as a catalyst for change. He recommended that we keep constant pressure on our state legislatures to create change for a better, more inclusive higher education environment.”
Northam said his ultimate goal was to have a better understanding of students across Virginia, something which would allow him to work with the governor to make the state’s education system stronger.
Axler said the meeting brought together many different issues and parts of the Student Council, but that the meeting was just the start of larger conversation.
“The meeting brought together a lot of the facets of student council to talk about issues that University of Virginia students care about,” Axler said. “The meeting was a beginning of a conversation.”
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