The Board of Visitors’ Academic and Student Life Committee met Thursday to hear presentations from Interim Provost Brie Gertler, current and former Student Council presidents, and student participants in the University’s Internship Placement Program. The Committee also heard from the incoming men’s basketball Coach Ryan Odom.
The Academic and Student Life Committee oversees all University operations pertaining to student affairs — such as athletics, culture and safety — residential and social life and food services. It is also responsible for policies on education and research, such as new degrees, programs and the retention and recruitment of faculty.
Gertler, in her remarks, acknowledged that there are troubles facing the University — namely the threat of losing federal funding, and the rise of generative artificial intelligence in higher education.
“As all of you are well aware, we've faced many challenges this spring, along with universities across the nation,” Gertler said. “Despite these challenges, we have much to celebrate, too, and I hope that you will bear with me as I provide many reasons for celebration.”
Gertler cited the nearly 8,000 degrees handed out over the University’s 12 schools, as well as numerous student accolades, as reasons for celebration.
Gertler also updated the Committee on the process of reaffirming the University’s accreditation, the process by which the University is evaluated to ensure the worth of its degrees. The process to reaffirm accreditation involves submitting a lengthy report to the accreditors, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The University must prove it meets all 73 standards of evaluation to remain an accredited institution.
An area for growth that Gertler said the University is focusing on for this accreditation cycle is internships for students, including research opportunities.
Columbia University recently came under fire from the Trump administration for its treatment of Jewish students and management of antisemitism on campus, and the administration said Columbia should lose its accreditation after the administration already pulled hundreds of millions in federal grants from the university.
Gertler emphasized the importance of accreditation not only for the worthiness of students’ degrees, but also for the ability for students to receive financial aid to attend the University. Gertler affirmed that the ideology of the school is not evaluated in the process.
As a part of the Student Experience panel, Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez, former Student Council president and Class of 2025 alumna, and Clay Dickerson, Student Council president and fourth-year College student spoke to the Committee. Mendoza Gonzalez touched on her achievements as Council president — such as budgeting for a new bus line and meal kits — and spoke to how Student Council helps to channel student concerns. She emphasized the bridge that the Council creates between students and University administrators.
“It gives a bridge for students to share in a comfortable environment where they feel safe to be vulnerable about what matters to them. I think that the Student Council is the only organization that allows this bridge to be that full of trust and vulnerability,” Mendoza Gonzalez said.
Dickerson explained his goals for his Council presidency, listing increasing CIO allocations, establishing advisory boards and enhancing financial accessibility as his main aspirations. He elaborated on the last one, describing his plan to create a “career closet” that helps students with acquiring business attire.
“I'm most excited to be institutionalizing a free Career Closet for students at the University,” Dickerson said. “This sounds like a no-brainer, but it really surprised me when I realized this doesn't exist at the University, but it does everywhere else in the Commonwealth.”
Student participants from the University Career Center’s Internship Placement Program also spoke before the Committee to share their experiences. IPP connects students with internship opportunities alongside a one-credit course reflecting on their internships.
Rising fourth-year College student Kate Rasmussen emphasized how helpful the program was in helping her get an internship at Wild Virginia — an environment non-profit dedicated to water and wildlife conservation — in a competitive environment.
“I think one of the most valuable parts of this program for me was just being able to get the internship in the first place … actually being able to get in the field and work with people who have been doing environmental science, and talking to them about how they ended up there, was extremely helpful,” Rasmussen said.
Because athletics are a large part of student life on Grounds, another presentation to the Committee came from Ryan Odom, who was recently named men’s basketball head coach. He told stories of his ties to the University, as his father was an assistant men's basketball coach on Terry Holland’s staff in the 1980s, and emphasized his honing of character and integrity in athletes.
“President Ryan will remember this in the interview process. I was sitting right across from him and Carla Williams, and one of the questions was, ‘Why Virginia?’ and I pulled out a picture of myself as a 10-year-old kid in a ball boy uniform, dribbling a ball in U-Hall, and just slid the picture right over there in front of them, because this place is in my heart,” Odom said.
While voting on two action items, the Committee approved the J. Sanford Miller Professorship and Director of Arts Leadership. The program will support a tenured or tenure-track professor who is appointed by the dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences that will also serve as the director of the Arts Leadership Program.
The professorship shares the namesake of the University's Miller Arts Scholars, a collective of undergraduate and arts students supported by a series of grants. Miller graduated from the College in 1971 and has served as an active alumnus having served as a trustee for the College Foundation and the University’s Arts Endowment, and serves on the Arts Council, the Jefferson Scholars Regional Selection Committee and the U.Va. Art Museum Advisory Board.
The Committee also approved the School of Architecture’s request to name their Center of Studies in Venice and Vicenza after Mario di Valmarana, a Venice native and former School of Architecture faculty member. The Center of Studies in Venice and Vicenza acts as an organizational hub for students studying abroad in Italy, and the center’s name change was also approved by the University’s Naming and Memorials Committee.
Valmarana formerly served as the director of the School of Architecture’s historic preservation program and after retiring in 2000 remained a board member for the School of Architecture Foundation until his passing in 2010. Valmarana was granted knighthood by the Italian government for his advocacy to promote cultural ties between the United States and Italy.
The Committee also entered closed session for part of the meeting, where it discussed faculty personnel matters. The Committee is scheduled to reconvene at the next Board meeting Sept. 11.
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