Student Council voted on Tuesday to form the Studio Collaborative Committee and provide it with $10,000 to design and build projects for the University.
The ad hoc committee originally tried to establish itself as a Contracted Independent Organization. But because most of the group's members were from a single Architecture course, Council could not grant them funding from the Student Activity Fund.
"They couldn't get funding because they were basically a class," Council President Micah Schwartz said. "We don't fund classes."
By establishing the Studio Collaborative Committee as an ad hoc committee, Council was able to grant the organization $10,000 that will go toward construction costs of the projects.
Council Chief of Staff Sarah Jobe added that departmental and SAF funding for the committee was hard to secure because of the nature of its function.
"University funding isn't set up" for interdepartmental projects, she said.
"The money at the University is so delineated to different departments. That's why Student Council is acting as a home" to the project.
The committee will "bridge the academic and extracurricular world here at U.Va.," Jobe said.
Schwartz said he believes the committee is "the type of collaboration we need more of at U.Va."
A selection committee of students from Council, the Architecture School and the Commerce School, as well as two professors will choose the specific projects.
Asst. Architecture Prof. Timothy Stenson, who will serve on the selection committee, said each project must have a specific, modest and achievable goal. Stenson said reasonable projects have access to required resources, satisfy a particular need at the University and serve as valuable learning experiences for students.
Second-year Architecture graduate student Andy Burdick will chair the committee.
Possible projects for the committee include improving water-dispensing systems at University sports facilities, building rain shelters by Beta bridge and constructing a bridge over the train tracks on Chancellor Street.
Stenson said the committee will remain focused on bettering Grounds for all students.
The committee "has a lot of potential," he said. "It can benefit the campus population in general by succeeding in a few carefully chosen projects which they can add to the physical campus."
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