CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The University of Virginia’s Student Council President said his interaction with new President Scott Beardsley has been “positive,” after the Council passed a resolution supporting Beardsley in the name of “institutional stability.”
The resolution came after a Jan. 23 meeting between Council President Clay Dickerson in which Dickerson told Cville Right Now he brought up some initiatives students feel strongly about.
Dickerson said he worked with students in the weeks leading up to the meeting to get the agenda crafted, making sure he was representing the students and not just himself.
One priority Dickerson said he discussed with Beardsley is ongoing financial support for the Support and Access Services (SAS) branch which was overwhelmingly instituted with 84% of the vote in a 2021 Constitutional referendum.
“Its goal is to provide basic needs, provisions, and services for income-limited students as well as anyone else who might need them, and it’s needed alternative financial support because the options are that or utilize the student activities fee money which is meant for the clubs,” Dickerson said.
He added that former UVA President Jim Ryan provided the council an initial gift of $750,000 over three years, followed up with $500,000 over two years just a year-and-a-half later. Being the former chief of the Support and Access Services branch, Dickerson’s goal in the meeting was to ask Beardsley to continue this support with $500,000 over two years, extending its life span until fiscal 2031 while also pursuing a matching funds endowment of $5-million with the President’s Office until 2031.
“That way the branch can exist in perpetuity without alternative financial support,” he said.
Another topic was greater mental health investment on Grounds, which Dickerson said are already “pretty good,” but there’s “no reason they can’t be better.” His goals are to lower wait times and open up availability for clinicians.
Finally, Dickerson said the two leaders discussed housing.
“Housing in Charlottesville is a crazy thing that we all have our different opinions on and it is not fun for anyone to deal with,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson said he’s also concerned with UVA’s application numbers reaching record highs, as there could be over enrollment.
“I would hate for us to end up like Virginia Tech where their housing crisis is a bit farther along than ours,” he said, “and their students are really shoving into apartments.”
He said they also discussed affordability, which he said is woven into all the topics they discussed.
Beardsley also committed to keep the idea of “keeping the magic alive,” with initiatives like Lighting of the Lawn and the Third Year Ring Ceremony, with support from the President’s Office.
Dickerson’s impression of the meeting was that it was “virtually all positive,” but the resolution does not dismiss the way the Presidential selection occurred.
“The resolution essentially acknowledges the moment,” Dickerson said, “and it acknowledges the process through which most folks, including our organization, were not okay with an we most likely will never be okay with it. It acknowledges the process through which federal overreach ousted Jim Ryan, while also recognizing that tomorrow is a day to make this place better for students.”
He said the resolution comes “full circle,” as while the process that put President Beardsley in office was less than desirable, the new president “has an opportunity to support students and make this place a better university to be in for the University of Virginia student than it was yesterday.”
Support for the resolution was not unanimous, as The Cavalier Daily notes Law Representative Kasey Michaud is concerned it offers unconditional support for a President and that the optics of the monetary support for the initiatives look like a bribe.
