Students have always been key banner men in any great movement for change. University of Virginia Students United is a group that carries forward this banner of progress and change here at the University. More students should be getting involved and taking the initiative to build student power through this organization, starting with the fight for a greater voice at Board of Visitors meetings in the form of a public comment session.
The University was founded on the principles of an Academical Village where the students and faculty live and work together while sharing in the decision-making aided by members of the Board who possessed similar interests. What it has become is the Board of Visitors, appointed by the governor, handing down mandates and long-term goals to the people that make this school great (students and faculty), who have little say in the operation of the Board. Even though the students have slowly been gaining power, there is still a lot left to be desired in terms of student influence. According to second-year College student Ibby Han, a representative of Students United, “UVa's power structures (the BOV, administration, etc.) fail to cultivate a student body that exemplifies the Jeffersonian ideal of an active and engaged citizenry.” This quote shows the crux of the issue in terms of tradition versus ideals, where the Board is tradition and the students want a more complete application of the ideals of student self-governance. The system worked until recently because of the inherent trust between the students and University to work in each other’s mutual interest; but mistrust had been building, culminating in the Board coup of President Sullivan.
For example, at the time of Teresa Sullivan’s ouster, the Board contained a handful of businessmen and lawyers, but no one with a background in education. This is because board positions are given out as a political favors by governors to contributors for helping them get elected. These people usually do not see the metaphysical beauty behind the University and its tradition of student leadership in University governance and direction; they only see the bottom line. To make matters worse, there is only one student representative on the board, and she is a nonvoting member.
Furthermore, we as students deserve a voice because our tuition dollars represent 36.6 percent of the academic budget here at the University and get no meaningful representation on the Board of Visitors. Meanwhile, the state, which appoints all 17 members of the Board of Visitors, only pays for 9.9 percent of the academic division. This discrepancy is at the heart of the friction between students and the University because we feel as the providers of the plurality of budget dollars, we have little say in how they are spent.
Students United describes itself as a “coalition of students from around the University community taking direct action and organizing for a more accessible, democratic, and inclusive UVa.” They do this by focusing on issues such as changing the direction of the budget to focus more on reducing tuition at the expense of other goals, diversifying the student body to more adequately reflect the population of Virginia as a whole, increasing student role in governance, and to look more in depth at the influence the University has on the Charlottesville community as a whole, in terms of living wages for workers and keeping Charlottesville accessible for everyone. These are all issues that have near universal appeal, and if they do not represent those most important for the entire student body, with more participation the issues can be shaped to more adequately reflect the student body as a whole, eliminating extraneous issues not directly relevant to the University, and the ability of Students United to force change will grow. Even now they are hoping to get a period for public discussion at Board meetings which, if accomplished, could be a stepping stone to even greater representation and progress for students.
We’ve had a lot of criticism in the Opinion section and in the student body as a whole recently over the fence being built around the railroad tracks. I can say with certainty that if more students had supported Students United and actively participated by letting their desires be known in this group, it could have put up one hell of a fight before letting this happen.
Students United is, as a student coalition, independent and horizontally organized enough to the extent where they will not lose sight of what matters to students, but they will still be able to enact meaningful change. Students United has already received an endorsement from Board of Visitors member Helen Dragas and has drafted a petition that received 200 signatures for a public comment period at Board of Visitors meetings. But still, with increased awareness and participation, a lot more can be accomplished.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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