Thirteen representatives of Student Council traveled to Richmond and took part in U.Va. Day at the General Assembly yesterday. The trip is an annual tradition for Council, during which it acts as a liaison between legislators and University students.
"It is our purpose to be a link between the state government and U.Va.," said third-year College student Kristin Twiford, co-chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee. "We've brought the legislators here before, and on this day we brought student concerns and talked to legislators."
More than 25 delegates were in attendance at U.Va. Day, including House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville.
Council's Legislative Affairs Committee drew on the results of a recent survey of the student body when addressing the legislature. In the survey, 1,966 University students provided their thoughts on a variety of educational issues.
"It was really helpful to have actual data from U.Va. students to back up what we were saying," said third-year College student John Bland, a representative of the Marketing and Communication Committee. "We had the proof for our talking points."
Council's first recommendation was support of Senate Bill 1371, which would allocate educational funds to renovate New Cabell Hall. 70 percent of surveyed University students supported the measure.
Next, the representatives demonstrated student support of the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011, which proposes strategies to make Virginia universities more affordable in the future. It would also expand current efforts by AccessUVa to cover more students with financial aid.
"The threshold of people whose needs we would be meeting would be higher," Twiford said. "We would be able to serve more students from middle-class families."
The third measure Council supported was Senate Bill 747, which would prohibit the discrimination of state employees, including those who work for the University, based on sexual orientation. Representatives cited student support as well as the values of the University's community of trust in their argument.
"Everyone should be accepted and not have to worry about losing their job because of their sexual orientation," Bland said.
For their final recommendation, the representatives drew attention to the 76 percent of University students who did not support a mandate requiring 75 percent in-state students at Virginia universities.
"We got our way this time, but it comes up every year," Twiford said. "The legislators could see that the students voted that way, and it made a very strong impression."
Council representatives see the benefits of this tradition of dialogue between University students and their government and are confident it will lead to improvements both on and off Grounds.
"I feel like we really represented student concerns today," Twiford said. "There was great student participation. I hope we can bring what we learned back to U.Va., as well"
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