In this spring’s student elections, students will be able to vote for Student Council president as well as over 80 other positions across the Student Council, Honor Committee, University Judiciary Committee, College Council, Architecture Student Council, Engineering Student Council, class councils and trustees.
Unlike elections in recent years, no referenda have been submitted yet for this year’s ballot. A referendum typically proposes changes to the internal structure of a University organization put to a vote by the whole student body, or the students in relevant schools. Previous years have seen referenda on reinstating historical tours by the University Guide Service, adding a student-athlete representative seat to the Student Council body, reapportioning representative seats in the UJC and extending the UJC Statute of Limitations from 45 to 90 days.
Candidate registration was open Feb. 2-5, and after registration, candidates must attend several information sessions hosted by the University Board of Elections that explain the rules and regulations of campaigning. Students are only eligible to vote in elections for representatives of their own schools — ballots for each student are personalized to include elections for their school of enrollment.
Abby Nickelson, UBE chair and fourth-year College student, said that UBE is also overseeing elections for the first time for several organizations on the ballot this year that had previously run their elections internally, such as the Batten School Undergraduate and Graduate Councils. As a result, more positions will be on the ballot Feb. 24-26 than in previous years.
Nickelson noted that while UBE has not received any referenda submissions yet, the window to submit will remain open until Feb. 19, when referenda petition signatures are due. To submit a petition, any individual student or student organization who wants to sponsor a referendum can download and complete the Referenda Proposal form available on the UBE website, and submit it via email to ube-referenda@virginia.edu from their University email address. If the constitution of the governing body of the student organization sponsoring the referendum does not indicate a required number of signatures, the UBE shall require a petition signed by no less than 1,250 students.
Nickleson also said that while the majority of the elections on the ballot are currently contested, there are some positions that do not have registrants. The UBE opened up a late registration window for the few positions without registrants, however, they only received additional registrants for Batten Undergraduate and Graduate Councils. If no one runs for a position, the organization will follow their internal procedures for filling a vacancy, such as through appointments or dual office holding.
There are currently two candidates for the roles of Student Council president, vice president for administration, vice president for operations, Second-Year Council president and vice president, and the majority of Honor and UJC positions.
In previous years, student elections have had low voter turnout — Nickelson said that last year’s turnout for UBE-administered elections was around 23 percent, which was slightly lower than the previous year, and only 12 percent of the student body voted in the Student Council presidential election last year.
Student Council
Candidates for Student Council president, VPA and VPO candidates all require 100 signatures to be on the ballot, while Class Council and school representative candidates need 25 signatures, with just 10 signatures needed for Batten and Architecture. Candidates' signature petitions are due to UBE by Feb. 13 to be eligible to run.
As of Feb. 10, the two candidates for Student Council president, Micah Andrews and Michael Mitchell, the candidates for VPO, Harper Tran and Benjamin Lawrence and the candidates for VPA, Saehee Pérez and Emily Frost, have all reached the required 100 signatures.
Campaigning officially begins Feb. 15 and will continue until the voting period, during which candidates typically use methods such as creating Instagram accounts to promote their platforms, writing campaign slogans in sidewalk chalk and putting up signs around Grounds.
Clay Dickerson, Student Council president and fourth-year College student said that he expects candidates to address several issues in their campaigns this year. These include issues related to confidence in the Board of Visitors and the University administration and navigating the first full academic year with the new leadership of University President Scott Beardsley’s administration.
In particular, Dickerson noted that candidates will likely discuss capitalizing on the funding extension that Student Council recently received from Beardsley for the Support and Action Services Branch of the University. Additionally, Dickerson said that candidates will promote their strategies for fundraising towards Student Council’s current goal of $5 million to be able to successfully continue the services of the Support and Access Services Branch in the long term.
He also emphasized the important role of the Student Council president in representing the student population in an era of increased government involvement with the University.
“I hope that candidates are interested and able to transparently and openly communicate student needs and interests regarding the continuing trend of federal overreach,” Dickerson said.
In addition to issues specific to the University, Dickerson said that he thinks candidates will address several issues on the national scale, such as affordability — which he described as a “national crisis” — free speech and concerns with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dickerson said he hopes the interactions between Student Council and the administration over the past year that have frustrated many will inspire more students to vote in the elections, and that students will realize the power they have through voting to make changes in the University.
“[There] has been a disgraceful lack of transparency that has a lot of students in the dark. This should hopefully mobilize folks to realize the change you can make only takes a little bit of reading and then a click,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson emphasized the role of the Student Council president in making the Student Council a strong entity within the University, capable of advocating for the student body.
“The strength of the Student Council lies in those who fill it.” Dickerson said. “Students can't afford silence, particularly from an elected voice. Transparency and a willingness to be vocal, even when it hurts to do so, is what's best for the students, and thus it is what is necessary for the leader.”
The Student Council Presidential Debate will take place Feb. 15 at 6:30pm in the Newcomb South Meeting Room. It is open to all students and will be live-streamed on The Cavalier Daily’s Instagram. Students may submit questions for the candidates via a form on The Cavalier Daily’s Instagram.
University Judiciary Committee
In this year's elections, there will be 33 UJC representative positions up for election across the University’s 12 schools, with the most coming from the College of Arts and Sciences — eight positions.
To run for UJC representative, a student must register with the UBE to be voted by the student body of their school. There are no prerequisites to run for a representative position, and the student does not need to have had previous membership in the UJC.
Allison McVey, UJC Chair and fourth-year College student, said that the biggest responsibilities of the representatives is to serve as an “empathetic” and “discerning” judge in the UJC’s trials. She said that representatives serve as ambassadors that can bridge the gap between the UJC and their respective schools.
“Anyone who's considering being a representative is probably going to be someone who would hopefully be thoughtful in asking questions, have a degree of natural curiosity and be able to do that in an empathetic way,” McVey said. “You can be discerning while at the same time recognizing and respecting the individual in front of you or the group that's in front of you.”
McVey said that currently, the UJC has not decided to sponsor any referendums. However, the executive committee is continuing to keep the possibility open. McVey said that the committee has undergone significant institutional change since their successful referendum last year, and is therefore refraining from sponsoring any referenda this year. Last year’s referendum expanded the UJC’s representative pool from five to eight in the College of Arts and Sciences and from two to three in the School of Engineering, in order to more proportionally reflect the student body sizes of each school.
McVey believes that the student referenda is a great tool for University organizations, but she said that using it every election year may not be a good choice for institutional stability.
She emphasized the importance of students voting in these elections, as the organizations with positions up for election play an important role in shaping life in the University. She also stated her appreciation for the unique level of student self-governance that the University allows.
“U.Va. is uniquely situated such that it offers a degree of authority and responsibility to its students that is unparalleled in American higher ed[ucation]. And with that, it's cliche, but with that power comes great responsibility,” McVey said.
After the school-wide, UBE-administered elections, the UJC has its own internal election process for the Chair or one of the Vice Chair positions that will take place April 1.
Honor Committee
There are 29 Honor Committee representative positions on the ballot for this spring’s elections.
During elections in the spring of 2023, the Committee introduced large institutional change via student referendum, including the introduction of the multi-sanction system which was a topic of discussion among Committee candidates in last year’s elections.
After the school-wide elections, the Committee will hold internal elections for the chair and vice chair positions in late March. Thomas Ackelson, Committee chair and fourth-year Engineering student, noted that he believes candidates will focus on addressing a variety of issues central to the mission of the Committee.
“I’m hopeful future Honor representatives will always focus on improving our system, and I think opinions changing is a natural, expected and healthy part of that process,” Ackelson said. “I expect candidates will choose to continue focusing on fairness in our process, efficiency in processing cases and protecting the rights of accused students.”
How to Vote
Every degree-seeking undergraduate student at the University is eligible to vote in the elections, and graduate students are able to vote in the graduate races in Honor, UJC, Student Council and the Student Bar Association. An email will be sent Feb. 24 to the University email address of every eligible student with a personalized link. The student can click on the link, sign in through Netbadge and vote for every position they are allowed to vote for based on the student’s year and school. The link will stay active from Feb. 24 at 8:00 a.m. until Feb. 26 at 4:00 p.m.
The ballot will use a ranked-choice voting system for student government positions, where voters can rank any number of candidates by their preference. If one candidate receives the majority of the top-choice votes, they will be declared the winner of the election.
While voter turnout in student elections has historically been low, Nickelson said that the UBE’s numbers are similar to other state universities.
“We are pretty much on par with what I would describe as peer schools … looking at Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan — usually their turnout for the [student council] president or their student body president equivalent, it's usually around 11 to 16 percent,” Nickelson said.
Nickelson said UBE aims to increase voter turnout. In pursuit of this goal, UBE hosts events including the upcoming Student Council Presidential debate co-hosted by The Cavalier Daily Sunday and coffee tabs during the voting period co-sponsored by the Honor Committee.
However, Nickelson said she believes the primary factor driving students to vote in the elections is belief in a candidate’s platform, and she said that the UBE aims to amplify candidate voices.
“It's [the students’] belief in the efficacy of the candidate's platform that matters most,” Nickelson said. Providing candidates with the tools and the information they need to go out and share their message with the University, that's really the most meaningful thing we can do at the end of the day.”
Nickelson also said that she believes the interactions between the Board, Student Council and University administration through several changes in administrative leadership in the past few months — such as the appointment of Beardsley and the resignations of former Board Rector Rachel Sheridan and former Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson — may inspire increased voter turnout due to increased awareness of the role of student leadership.
“Elected student leaders are among the few students who actually can hope to have any level of visibility into those dynamics in real time,” Nickelson said. “I hope students see it's in everyone's interest to elect capable people who are going to make real good time decisions when they have insight into things that other people don't.”
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