In the past two months, Student Council has done more to enhance outreach and communication with the University community than it has at any other time in recent memory. By far the most important reason for this improvement is the flourishing success of Speak Up UVA, an online forum for students to publicly voice and vote on their concerns about the University.
An editorial earlier this month ("Visionary communication," Oct. 1) commented about the potential for Speak Up UVA to become an extremely valuable means of communication between Council and students. In the weeks since, Council has been proactive in responding to posts and keeping the Web site updated. Student use of the site appears to have increased dramatically. If Council continues to invest its time into making the forum as thriving as possible, it should pay dividends in making student governance more relevant to the University community.
Speak Up UVA functions like an embellished message board. Students can post threads about the University issues they would like to see Council address, and each visitor to the site is given 10 votes to cast for the problems they find to be most pressing. There are categories for new ideas, proposals that Council has accepted and requests that it has followed through on and addressed.\nThe key to the site's success is interactivity. Council has been attentive in responding to students' posts, giving status updates and short descriptions about what is being done to solve different problems. For example, one post asks Council to assist in "creat[ing] a better student performance space" for productions undertaken outside the drama department. A response from the site's administrator reads "this is something that the Student Arts committee is working on. They're currently talking with the people in charge of the Newcomb Renovation project to see if better performance space can be added." In addition to this statement, Student Arts Committee Chair Jenny Smith posted a comment with further details and additional contact information for follow-up concerns.
The nature of Speak Up UVA avoids the outreach "chicken or the egg" type of dilemma that Council has faced in the past. Its leaders have often sought to expand outreach and communication as a first step and then use that effort as a basis for developing specific goals and initiatives. However, it seems plausible that first accomplishing tangible, meaningful projects would send a signal to students that Council is genuinely working in their self-interests. As a result, students might be more likely to contribute to future deliberations. Because Speak Up UVA creates a continuous, self-reinforcing cycle of dialogue between Council and students, it is a powerful tool to help overcome this classic challenge. Students will be able to see Council addressing their concerns, which in turn should fuel further discussion and participation on the site.
Speak Up UVA creates a win-win situation of which Council should take complete advantage of. Council leaders should ensure the forum becomes institutionalized so that it can be maintained throughout subsequent administrations. As a Web program, Speak Up UVA will require someone with at least a minimal technical background to manage it in the future. Council must guard against these threats that arise from its brief institutional memory. To do otherwise would risk laying quite the proverbial egg.
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