Student Council announced the theme of the 2008 University Unity Project yesterday: “Charlottesville: Beyond Our Grounds, Within Our Community.” The project is intended to bring students together while simultaneously improving the University and Charlottesville community throughout the fall semester.
“The unity project is based on the idea that all of the students at the University want to come together and direct all of their talents and resources towards a common vision,” Project Committee Chair Rob Atkinson said. “We really wanted to encourage the University community to pursue one vision both by supporting individual initiatives and by giving an opportunity for different student groups on Grounds to collaborate and leverage the different opportunities that all of them have available.”
This year, the project’s common vision and aim is to encourage and to promote cooperation between the University and Charlottesville communities while also improving the quality of life for students living off Grounds.
“The idea of the unity project in general originated last fall and it’s something we put into concrete terms late last spring,” Council President Matt Shrimper said. “Throughout the summer we’ve had people working on this; it’s an idea that’s evolved and grown and it’s something that we’re very proud to announce to the University community.”
Council is particularly excited about the project because it is the only one of its kind in the field of higher education, Atkinson said.
“It’s really our hope that the unity project will be student-driven in that groups and individuals will come forward with ideas on how they can contribute their skills and their resources to the Unity Project,” Atkinson said.
So far, Council has discussed several initiatives that it hopes to implement within the next month as part of the project, including “FreeRide,” which would allow any student traveling home after dark a free taxi ride.
“LightenUp” is another Council initiative encompassed within the project. Shrimper said the initiative would work to remedy the unlit off-Grounds student housing areas.
“This is a perfect example of how we’re asking students to take responsibility of their safety,” Shrimper said. “Student Council does not have the resources to go out and build lights all over off-Grounds areas. If a student feels like their area off Grounds is poorly lit, we’ll be able to provide them and their landlord with as many flood lights as they need to light their property.”
Council also hopes that individual students and student groups will take ownership of the project by submitting possible project initiative ideas themselves through the project’s Web site. Atkinson added that students’ ideas will be essential to the project.
“I think the goal of the unity project is our emphasis on having students take ownership of the theme and the project itself in the sense that we don’t want it to just be another Student Council initiative,” Atkinson said. “We want students to say ‘I want to do what I can to improve the community I live in.’”
Council will continue to discuss the project and related initiatives at next Tuesday’s meeting.
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