Student Council representatives passed a resolution to establish the Residential College Coalition during Tuesday’s general body meeting, which is an agreement between the three residential colleges at the University to maintain open communication amongst college student leaders. Representatives viewed the new “Hoos Concerned” website, which will serve as an online, community forum for University students and community members.
Residential Colleges are on-Grounds, living-learning communities to which students of all years can apply to reside. Due to a recent change to the on-Grounds housing policy, upperclassmen are no longer receiving priority in the housing application process, something which also impacts residential colleges. Rather than a student’s lease rolling over into the next academic year for residential colleges, current residents will need to reapply.
During the general body meeting Sept. 30, third-year Architecture Representative Philippe Hempel expressed concern with this new requirement of a re-application. He said the purpose of the residential colleges is to establish a community that a student can stay in if they wish and sponsored the resolution to establish the RCC. Hempel explained that while it is in part due to the application process changing for residents, the resolution ultimately came about because student leaders amongst the three residential colleges realized they were receiving differing information from University Housing and Residence Life. They met Sunday to discuss solutions.
He said residential college leaders came to an understanding in their meeting that they had the resources to help each other, and that this open dialogue was incredibly helpful.
“We realized … what ended up happening is [that] one college would have one problem [and] another college had a solution,” Hempel said.
Hempel went on to say that he hopes the resolution serves as a means to maintain a relationship between the three residential colleges going forward.
“We do need to keep fostering this open dialogue, which will help us coordinate our policies and ultimately create a better experience for residents, but also [help us] comply more effectively with some of the demands that U.Va. has had recently,” Hempel said.
Third-year College Representative Jackson Sleadd questioned Hempel’s ultimate goal with the establishment of the RCC. Hempel responded that the purpose of the RCC is to maintain cross-communication and increase consistency across the three residential colleges. Hempel noted this consistency could look like a more uniform application between each college, or even in a broader sense of the colleges working together to help each other solve issues.
The resolution to establish the RCC passed among Student Council representatives.
Representatives also tested the new online forum for community concerns, titled, “Hoos Concerned.” This launch was announced by Lily Dorathy, Student Council director of coalition engagement and fourth-year Batten and College student, who worked alongside Ian Travis, Student Council chair of community concerns and third-year College student, to bring the website to life.
The forum is not yet live — Travis and Dorathy are still piloting the system. After piloting is complete, the forum will be linked on the Student Council website for University community members to post concerns, and for website administrators — which includes Travis and Dorathy — to reply to comments and post updates regarding the status of what is being done to address a specific concern.
Dorathy said “Hoos Concerned” is inspired by a domain that existed 10 years ago called “Speak Up, U.Va.,” which was a similar concept, but the current Student Council has lost access to that page.
Finally, Clay Dickerson, Student Council president and fourth-year College student urged representatives to spread the word for University students to vote in student elections. Fall 2025 New Student Elections began Monday and ran through Thursday for University students to vote for positions including First Year Council president, Undergraduate International Student Council Representative and three University Judiciary Committee College Representatives. Students are eligible to vote in an election if they are in the school or year of the position up for vote, and voting takes place online through an email sent to students’ inboxes.
Student elections also take place annually in the spring for students to vote for Student and Class council administrative positions.
“The most annoying thing for me is having these random older folks say, ‘Oh, student self-governance is dead — only 12 percent of students voted,” Dickerson said. “Let’s get those numbers up so they can’t keep saying [that].”
Student Council will not hold a general body meeting next Tuesday due to University Fall Reading Days, but it will reconvene for a general body meeting Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m.
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