Student Council met Tuesday to discuss potential changes to dining on-Grounds and consider the approval of new CIOs.
Vice President of Administration Daria Winsky said she met with Nicole Jackson, U.Va. Dining’s marketing manager, to discuss introducing plus dollars to athletic events and adding a meal exchange in the Fine Arts Cafe.
U.Va. Dining cannot make the decision to allow plus dollars at JPJ because sales are done through the Athletics Department, which takes a commission on each sale, said Winsky, a fourth-year Batten student .
“If [U.Va.] Dining chose to take on those sales, student prices would rise in order for them to be able to sustain that contract,” Winsky said.
U.Va. Dining tried to negotiate a compromise between food provider Aramark and the Athletics Department, but couldn’t come to a compromise that worked for both parties, Winksy said.
Winksy said this policy is specific to U.Va. Dining, not general to Aramark’s relationships with athletic departments at other universities, and said she would look into the policies at other schools.
U.Va. Dining is very aware of the need for meal exchange in the Fine Arts Cafe, Winsky said, but the small kitchen space makes accomodation difficult.
“Adding a meal swipe would lead to a much greater influx of students than the Fine Arts Cafe could handle,” Winsky said. “However, [U.Va. Dining] is looking at doing something like a limited meal exchange, like in Café McLeod, for a specific period of the day with a few options.”
Adding a meal exchange program would primarily benefit Arts students and would not bring too many other students to the Fine Arts Cafe, second-year Architecture student Josh Gritz said.
“Most people don’t even know what the Fine Arts Cafe is,” Gritz said. “Adding a meal exchange isn’t necessarily going to bring in that many people from outside the community, it’s just going to create better options for people who already go there.”
Council also voted to approve 13 new CIOs after a debate about the financial implications of having so many new student organizations.
One approved organization was Sweater Vests as Tank Tops. Third-year Engineering student and SVATT Founder Shota Ono said the new CIO’s core values are inclusivity, confidence and acceptance.
“[SVATT is an] inclusivity initiative that empowers people to wear what they want to wear, and dismantles social pressures to dress a certain way and be a certain person,” Ono said.
Ono said SVATT began after he wore a sweater vest without an undershirt one summer day.
“A few of my friends were quick to call me out for it, condemning it as ‘disgusting,’ and ‘a fashion abomination,’” Ono said. “This upset me, because I feel like no one should be alienated or marginalized based on what they wear.”
Ono subsequently posted a picture of himself “SVATTing” on Facebook to gauge interest. The picture, which garnered 200 likes, gave Ono the confidence to move forward, he said.
Other CIOs approved by Council include Cavalier Capital, Women in Policy, Student Bible Study Fellowship and the Memorial for Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia.
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