The Presidential Senate held its first meeting April 17 and featured presentations about the Student Memorial Garden and a proposal for creating a space for arts groups on Grounds.
Student Council President Emily Lodge, a third-year Batten student, created the Presidential Senate, which is comprised of more than 100 student leaders from various organizations.
“The Senate was created to bring student leaders together so we can tackle large student issues together as a team,” Lodge said in an email statement. “It is one thing when Student Council shows support for an issue and tries to use our resources to fix a concern, but that support and that voice is so much stronger when it comes from over 100 student leaders who want to improve the student experience.”
The April 17 meeting featured two presentations.
Third-year Architecture student Daniel McGovern gave the first presentation and talked about the possible renovation of the Student Memorial Garden, which is located between Newcomb Hall, Clemons Library and the Special Collections Library.
The garden renovation would give the community a space dedicated to the memory of students who lost their lives while attending the University, McGovern said.
McGovern said the senate is a “powerful think tank” that brings student leaders together to address larger issues at the University. He said he brought the Student Memorial Garden to the senate to receive help from other student leaders.
“The fate of this project rests in the hands of three students, and we've reached a point where we need more muscle than we have to get the administration's attention and make sure the project doesn't lose steam,” McGovern said in an email statement. “Specifically, we needed advice on potential funding routes, as well as greater student awareness of the project and ideas to refine our current designs.”
The second presentation was by Jocelyn Huang, a second-year Architecture student and co-chair of the Student Council Students Arts Committee. Her presentation addressed a proposed renovation of the Student Activity Building into a space for University arts groups.
“... Arts CIOs do not have enough spaces to rehearse, which is stunting the growth of the arts at U.Va. The U.Va. student arts are growing, but we’ve hit capacity and without more arts accommodating spaces, our growth will stay stunted,” Huang said, according to the senate’s agenda. “After considering many different solutions, including renting department spaces, the Student Activities Building and Newcomb [Hall], it’s clear that the only long term solution is a student arts building.”
Following presentations at each senate meeting, an online vote will be held for the “Presidential Senate Seal” where senate members decided if the concerns were valid. If 50 percent or more vote yes, the seal is granted. Both of the proposals from April 17 received seals.
“After all of the presentations, we had a roll call vote on which issue will be the ‘Presidential Senate Issue of the Month,’” Lodge said. “The senate may be faced with many extremely important issues every month, but we will not be effective if we try to address everything at the same time. This allows us to prioritize one issue and focus our efforts in one area.”
The Student Memorial Garden was chosen as this month’s Presidential Senate Issue.
Two working groups also gave short presentations at the end of the meeting.
Second-year Batten student Katie Brandon announced the establishment of an “Electoral Engagement Task Force,” which will work to increase student participation in elections during their time at the University.
The force is working to form a plan to register students to vote, either for the first time or at their school addresses, increase voter information and get students to polls on Election Day, Brandon said.
Third-year College student Aryn Frazier and second-year College student Josh Jaspers introduced “Amplify!” — the idea of consolidating and amplifying the voices of students who are not often engaged in University politics, and to get them involved in the voting process and in civic life at the University. Jaspers noted that the format for doing so is yet to be determined.
The idea also includes finding a space that would allow for collaboration and more long-term change.
“Bringing this before the Senate was a great opportunity for Aryn and [me] because we were able [to] present our ideas to leaders from all corners of the community,” Jaspers said in an email statement. “This allowed us to gain interest, advice and support from people, which will be especially helpful down the road.”
Lodge said she hopes the Senate helps students find support for issues they care about.
“I hope the senate is able to empower the student voice and improve the student experience,” Lodge said. “I want the senate to be a positive platform that allows students to get support for the issues they care about.”
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