After a year under Student Council's direction, the University Unity Project made its debut nearly four weeks ago as an independent entity under the leadership of second-year College student Sheffield Hale and fourth-year College student Garrett Trent. Whether the project can sustain itself independently, however, will perhaps be its biggest trial to date.
The University Unity Project was originally launched in August 2008 under then-Council President Matt Schrimper's administration as an ad-hoc committee within Council. Its architects sought to galvanize and join together as many students as possible - along with the Charlottesville community - with an inaugural theme of "Charlottesville: Beyond our Grounds, Within our Community." The original effort intended to make students aware that their actions affect the greater community in which they reside and vice versa.\n\nChallenges
The Unity Project, however, has encountered several logistical problems since its conception. The Unity Project referendum glitch during the University-wide spring elections was perhaps the most notable setback. The referendum had hoped to give students a voice by allowing them to vote for the new Unity Project's theme. Rather than allowing students to select one from the four available themes, only one 'Yes' or 'No' question was listed on the page. In an effort to redress the problem, Council quickly opened a poll on its own Web site, but this was soon encumbered by problems as well: students were able to vote as many times as they liked, distorting the vote. Council finally managed to remedy the problem by introducing a second formal vote through the University Board of Elections Web site - through which "Environmental Sustainability and Awareness" prevailed as the theme of the project's sophomore year - but fewer students participated as a result of the long delay.
Technical problems aside, other challenges arose from the project's recruitment efforts among student organizations on Grounds. Schrimper said Council intended to simply serve as a means for the project's introduction and early growth until it developed enough to thrive on its own. The Unity Project initially consisted of Council members, along with members of class councils and the University Programs Council.
"The intention has always been for it to pull in leadership from across student groups at the University," he said. "So, conveniently, Student Council was a great place for the Unity Project to start because of the organizational capacity Student Council has."
Council always intended to move the Unity Project to leadership under a contracted independent organization to ensure that the project would become a truly unifying initiative with a committee that "becomes more a part of the entire student body and less of something Student Council is focused on," Schrimper said.
That goal, however, has met roadblocks as Council did not consider the burden it could have on University CIOs.
"We wanted other student organizations to take a large role in the effort, but we underestimated how other organizations already had a great deal on their plates," Schrimper said. "It's a big thing to expand their vision and collaborate with other groups - it requires a great deal of extra work and energy."
New administration, new changes
To help address these difficulties, some changes to the Unity Project have been put into effect since current Council President John Nelson's administration took office in March. For example, although the executive board agreed that Council wanted to continue following the project's fundamental tenements, it also identified some of the project's key areas that were in need of improvement.
"The ... program did not result in a truly united effort among student groups," Nelson said. "The project primarily became a financial relationship between Student Council and certain student groups. This year, we wanted the Unity Project to focus more on unity."
Although the Unity Project is no longer under Council's leadership, Council will continue to assist the project's new leaders as needed, Nelson said.
"Student Council helped to organize their initial meetings," he said. "Student Council is definitely going to contribute to the Project's goals and figure out ways we can help."
Though the Project only recently gained its independence, some notable differences between the two entities have already come to light, particularly in terms of outreach, advertising, budgeting and planning.
For example, though Council passed its annual budget in early September, the Unity Project committee has yet to determine the projected costs of its projects, even with half a semester behind it, Hale said.
Last year, University student groups had the opportunity to apply online for grants of up to $500 to fund initiatives to promote student interaction with the Charlottesville community, as part of the Unity Project's goal. These grants were funded by a $10,000 gift from the University Bookstore in Council's budget, but now that the Unity Project is on its own, it will need to find alternative funding.
The Unity Project also is now responsible for determining how various student groups can contribute resources toward the project's goals and initiatives, Nelson said.
"We are planning on getting funding through UPC, Student Council and are also researching some grants," Hale said. "We will seek funding when we determine exactly what our projects will need."\n\nGoals on the horizon
The Unity Project's committee currently consists of about 30 representatives from various CIOs, including Student Council, the Black Student Alliance, the First-Year Fellowship and the Inter-Fraternity Council, out of the more than 600 CIOs on Grounds. The committee, however, is still in the process of figuring out how it will encourage CIO representatives to attend its regular meetings, Hale said.
"We're still reaching out to different groups to bring them in," he said, adding that while they have not planned a full-fledged publicity blitz, it will be one of the project's initial focuses.
Additionally, whereas Council has embraced new media as a means to improve outreach, the committee is relying on a more conventional approach, former Unity Project Chair Rob Atkinson said, to maintain the original "grassroots campaign" that he emphasized during his term.
"We've been talking to the representatives who come to those meetings and reminding them that [they're] a representative for this organization, and telling them how to get this information from the top, how can you then go get that information back to your CIO and back to your friends who can then take it back to their CIO," Trent said. "It's about word of mouth really."
Trent added that the committee is still trying to find its rightful niche at the University.
"We're still trying to get a feel for where our ideas fit in the University effort," he said. "There's been so much planning as to how to approach students at U.Va and how to approach it as a University-wide effort and something everyone can work on."
But whether the Project will flourish and extend beyond a handful of years or simply dissolve is contingent upon many factors.
Abby Coulter, an activities advisor in the Student Activities Center, noted that strong leadership and passionate individuals are vital for the success and longevity of projects of this scale.
"In a big project like this you have to have strong leadership and reach a lot of people, so coordinating that can sometimes be a challenge," she said. Coulter also suggested a less centralized organizational system to maintain scope.
"I would suggest that if there's one leader that he or she surrounds him or herself with people who are good at seeing the big picture and seeing the details," she said. "In my experience, I've seen that sometimes students are good at looking at one thing, but the others tend to fall by the wayside. Having both those perspectives is really important."
Meanwhile, both Trent and Hale noted that they have already made progress on some of their short-term goals to create and to assign leaders to their first round of projects, which include Earth Week, a week in April that will coincide with Earth Day and provide a capstone to this year's efforts. The leaders are also planning a Green Conference, which will feature 10 workshops focused on environmental issues and a CIO-consulting program to help CIOs be more sustainable.
"It's a time where we can work with administrators ... to highlight interesting efforts in a very visual way," Trent said about the proposed Green Week.
Schrimper, who proposed the idea of the Unity Project in his Council presidential campaign in 2008, added that uniting student groups at the University is one of Council's foremost roles, and he is pleased with the path the Unity Project has carved in unifying student groups. Despite its setbacks, Schrimper said he is hopeful about his idea's future.
"I don't think there is a more important role of Student Council at the University than to bring together student groups like the Unity Project can do," he said.
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