CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The presidents of the University of Virginia main Grounds and UVA-Wise student councils have written a memorandum of cooperation that includes a call for full-fledged student members of the Board of Visitors.
While student, faculty, and staff representatives exist on the Board of Visitors as currently comprised, UVA Charlottesville Student Council President Clay Dickerson pointed out to WINA Morning News, “This individual, being an ex-officio member, they don’t necessarily have the right to stay in during the closed sessions unless it’s granted to them by the rest of the board.”
“They don’t have the right to vote on matters and directly represent students and essentially are a communicative agent,” Dickerson said. “I personally feel, and for years and years students have felt this not to be enough and understand that a vote is what it takes. That’s what our entire society is built upon is the democratic belief that everyone has the right to vote and represent themselves.”
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger may be a listening ear.
In her 10-page education campaign document called “Strengthening Virginia’s Schools Plan,” Spanberger wrote about former “non-partisan, mission-driven individuals, primarily with BOV experience, to the Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments and leverage the Commission for BOV recommendations of serious individuals whose responsibility and allegiance is to addressing needs of the institutions they serve”.
She told a Weekly Show podcast with Jon Stewart last week she’ll be pursuing legislative changes that need to be done by the General Assembly.
Lt. Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi, who’s been serving in the state Senate, told CvilleRightNow last month that legislation is “in the drafting stage” that gives student, faculty, and staff voting representation on the boards.
Dickerson took the representation on the UVA Board a little further, “With students paying this tuition, we believe in taxation with representation and so we would like our student members to have that vote to represent folks in Charlottesville, Wise, and the Northern Virginia campus because every voice matters in all those locations.”
Dickerson and UVA-Wise Student Council President William Rudeseal wrote the Path Foward is “ the first action born from our memorandum of cooperation, which asserts that our organizations will serve each other and work together to uplift joint causes”.
