Student Council convened for its first general body meeting of the summer Saturday. Representatives confirmed cabinet members and other Council appointments. They also approved new Contracted Independent Organizations and the summer budget.
Cabinet confirmations are typically finalized prior to the summer session. However, the traditional process was delayed due to the postponement of the inauguration of Michael Mitchell, Student Council president and rising fourth-year Commerce student, last spring.
All confirmations for cabinet members and Council appointments passed unanimously amongst representatives, confirming rising fourth-year College student Grace Blake as chief of the Presidential Cabinet, rising second-year College student Clint Wilson as chief of Support and Access Services, rising second-year Commerce student Lucy Bonadeo as director of University relations and rising third-year College student Coco Ahn as chief of Coalition Engagement.
Representatives also confirmed appointments to the Support and Access Branch, including directors of Airbus, Student Legal Services, Mutual Aid and the co-directors of Textbook Access Office. Additionally, they confirmed appointments to other Council agencies, including the co-directors of the Arts Agency, Community Engagement Agency, Diversity Engagement Agency, Financial Accessibility Agency, International Student Affairs Agency, Legislative Affairs Agency, Safety and Wellness Agency, Student Life Agency and Sustainability Agency.
Philip Ermanoski, Council chief financial officer and rising third-year College student, presented the proposed Council summer budget, which the Council unanimously approved. He noted that projected spending is lower than last summer in many categories. The proposed budget totals to $59,250, which is down from $67,341.46 last summer.
Some of the largest decreases came from Coalition Engagement, whose budget fell from $3,150 to $150, and Administrative Committee expenses — which include discretionary spending for new initiatives, office supplies and Student Council week — which decreased from $4,271 to $1,230. Projected spending for Executive & Administration Operations also declined by $1,800. Representative Committee expenses was the only category to see an increase, rising from $1,250 to $1,352.
Organizations Committee expenses remained the largest budget category, allocating $29,000 to CIO Consulting. The CIO Consultants Committee within the Council helps CIOs navigate logistics, funding, space reservations and support from the Council, and the budget allocations go towards items including the Fall Activities Fair, merchandise, food and giveaways. Cabinet spending also changed, with a new $3,000 arts budget added while funding for committees including Academic Affairs, Financial Accessibility and Sustainability was reduced to zero.
The Council also considered, but ultimately tabled, SB26-15 — “A Bill to Amend the Bylaws to Permit Representatives to Petition for Non-Academic Session Meetings.” Sponsored by Patrick Jo, rising third-year Commerce representative, the bill would amend the Council bylaws by adding a mandate that the president or chair of the representative body must hold an emergency meeting outside of the academic year following a petition signed by two-thirds of Council representatives.
Currently, non-academic session emergency meetings may only be called if the Council president, chair of the representative body, vice president for organizations and vice president of administration — collectively referred to as the “Big Four” by Council members — unanimously agree that a meeting should be held. The bill would have retained the existing process while adding an alternative method allowing representatives to petition for a meeting if one member of the Big Four opposed calling it.
During the meeting, Jo said the proposal was inspired by last summer’s non-academic session meetings following the resignation of Jim Ryan, former University professor and School of Law professor. He noted that under the current bylaws, a meeting could not have been called if one member of the Big Four had opposed holding one, regardless of the wishes of other Council leaders or representatives.
“The University faced serious challenges last summer that required a student response … there could be a situation where one member of the Big Four blocks a meeting or cannot be reached … so this bill would provide another way to call a meeting in those situations,” Jo said. “It would also give representatives a way to act if a vast majority — in this case two-thirds [of representatives] — feel that leadership is not listening to them.”
Imane Akhanous, graduate Batten representative and former Council chair of the representative body, raised concerns that the bill’s requirement that two-thirds of representatives sign a petition before a meeting could be called was too high.
“As someone who served as chair … I [think that] two-thirds generally is not a realistic number,” Akhanous said. “I think if you want this to be a realistic amendment, that should be lowered substantially, because two-thirds [of] representatives will not be able to mobilize to sign [a petition].”
Jo said the petition process was intended to be used only in the most serious circumstances, which is why the threshold was set so high. He added that the legislation could be amended further before the Council voted to table the bill.
The Council also approved several new CIOs, including MedAscend, Dear Virginia, i5 Space Gauldin-Thorton Squadron and the South Asian Student Association. Harper Tran, Council VPO and rising fourth-year Batten student, said the organizations had been scheduled for approval before the end of the spring semester but were delayed because of postponed meetings.
Student Council will reconvene for its first meeting of the 2026-27 academic year Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 6:30 p.m.
Lucia Gambacini is a senior writer on the news desk covering Student Council and other issues pertaining to student life and government. She is a third-year from Richmond, Va. studying Political & Social Thought in the College.
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