Student Council discussed transparency and communicating details regarding the CIO application process to students during their general body meeting Tuesday night.
Co-Chair of the Outreach Committee Luke Williams, a second-year College student, referenced a petition by a recently approved CIO — DREAMers on Grounds — when he discussed meeting minutes during the community concerns portion of the meeting.
The group petitioned Student Council when they were not initially granted CIO status at a representative meeting, citing concerns of a general lack of transparency and responsiveness. This was demonstrated by the lack of access to Student Council meeting minutes online.
Williams said the meeting minutes are available on request, but acknowledged that it might be a good idea to have them on the website.
Student Council President Emily Lodge, a third-year Batten student, responded by saying Chief Technology Officer Eric Xie, a second-year Engineering student, likely intended to post them but had not done so yet.
Later in the meeting, Chair of CIO Consultants Ty Zirkle, a first-year College student, said the committee is currently working on resources to make the CIO application process clearer to Student Council members and the wider University community. Zirkle said the committee hopes to have these resources posted on the council’s website by the end of the semester.
“We are working on putting together a feedback form for CIOs that just got their status to see what would have been helpful as they were applying,” Zirkle said.
Despite Student Council’s ongoing efforts to provide more information about the CIO application process, Vice President for Organizations MacKenzie Hodgson, a second-year Engineering student, said the application process is currently closed until next semester.
Following the general body meeting, the representative body voted on and passed four bills. The first passed with 12 yes votes, zero no votes and two abstentions and approved four new CIOs — Turning Point, Spreading Epilepsy Awareness, Mindfulness for Students at the University of Virginia and Virginia Architecture Magazine.
The second bill proposed by Hodgson allocated storage space in Newcomb to all CIOs that requested it.
“If they had the space in the past and used it, then they get the space again, but if they had the space in the past and didn’t use it, then they don’t get space anymore,” Hodgson said. “The spaces that were unused we try to give to new CIOS.”
The bill passed with 13 yes votes, zero no votes and one abstention.
The final two bills approved an internal budget which allocated funds to Student Council committees, and a bill which combined the community engagement and public affairs committees into a Community Service committee, and eliminated the committee on Student Life.
Although the bill passed tonight, Community Service was officially formed two weeks ago and is currently in the process of dividing its members into two subcommittees.
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