Third-year College student Jada Benefield, third-year Batten student Lillian Dorathy and third-year College student J. De Andrade Lima will form a presidential ticket in the upcoming Student Council presidential election. The group, who call their campaign “The ACE Vision,” are running on three key pillars — amplify, collective action and efficiency.
Within the ACE Vision’s campaign, Benefield is running for President, Dorathy is running for Vice President for Administration and Lima is running for Vice President of Organizations.
Lima said that the three candidates chose to run on a ticket together because of their shared values and goals for Student Council.
“What really brought us together is our commitment to public service and advocacy,” Lima said. “...We decided to run together because we see these Student Council positions not as opportunities for advancement, but more of an opportunity to give back to a school and student body that has given us so much [and] has been so supportive of all of us.”
The ACE Vision campaign aims to amplify student voices, foster collective action and improve efficiency within Student Council. Under the ticket’s three tenets, each candidate has key initiatives and policy plans.
Amplify
The group prioritizes amplifying student voices by making Student Council more accessible and representative of student concerns, according to Benefield. She is committed to ensuring that all students, particularly those from minority backgrounds, have access to the support they need.
Benefield plans to expand Student Legal Services for at-risk students in the wake of recent executive orders from President Trump. She highlighted that SLS currently mostly only covers traffic, housing and criminal cases, leaving some students who may need legal support in the face of federal funding and job cuts.
“That leaves a part of the student body that is without support, especially during a central time like this where they may be experiencing fear and just the unknown,” she said.
Benefield said she will try to achieve this by creating a legal assistance fund to provide at-risk students with the resources to feel supported moving forward.
Dorathy said she plans to amplify student voices by increasing participation from the student body and getting students more involved in policy-making. She proposes live-streaming Student Council legislative sessions, allowing for public comments and revamping initiatives like Speak Up UVA — a public forum for students to voice concerns, propose solutions and engage in discussions to improve the University
“I plan to revolutionize how we do student policy making. Currently, the student body really is not that engaged with legislation that passes at [Student Council meetings], and that's not their fault,” Dorathy said. “It's a marketing aspect on our end … I really want to extend that legislative power to the student body.”
Lima’s concerns about representing student voices lie in the importance of ensuring that student organizations, especially those representing marginalized groups, are supported financially. He proposes removing the burden of administrative salaries for University leadership, which, according to Lima, are currently paid out of the SAF — $150,000 out of the total $850,000 budget. Instead of the University using the SAF to pay these salaries, Lima proposes that these costs shift to the University’s operational budget and leave the SAF for student groups. This change would ensure that more funds are directed toward student activities, reducing inefficiencies in fund allocation.
Lima also noted that he hopes to amplify student voices — for example, he is in support of the proposed referendum on the ballot to reinstate historical tours by the University Guide Service. Lima said he strongly disagrees with the administration’s decision to revoke the Guides' Special Status Organization Agreement, citing concerns about administrative transparency and the broader implications for student self-governance.
“The idea for my platform, particularly within the organizations branch, is [better] utilizing the resources that we already have,” Lima said. “And making sure we're talking with the University administration so we can get access to more resources or repurpose existing resources [for student groups].”
Through expanding access to resources and funding, as well as increasing policymaking transparency, the ACE Vision candidates hope to amplify student voices in advocating for their interests with the University.
Collective Action
As its second pillar, the ACE Vision ticket is committed to fostering collective action by empowering students to have a direct voice in student governance at the University.
Benefield emphasized the importance of student self-governance and said that true power lies in unified action among students, organizations and University administrative departments. She cited concerns over the fact that Student Council’s power to enact real policy change comes from the University, not the students.
“We want to advocate on behalf of students, but we often find ourselves in a position where our power can be easily stripped away,” Benefield said.
To address this concern, Benefield’s platform includes an initiative to give the student representative to the Board of Visitors’s official voting power — currently, the student representative can only make suggestions, but cannot cast a formal vote. Giving them a vote will strengthen student representation on the Board, which makes critical decisions affecting the entire University community, she said. Achieving this policy would require that a bill pass through the Virginia State Legislature and be signed by the Governor.
One aspect of Dorathy's collective action platform is creating a Policy Impact Tracker on Student Council’s website. This tracker would serve as a transparent tool to track the University’s policies and actions, allowing students to see the changes being made and how they may impact them.
In addition to tracking these changes, Dorathy said she proposes implementing an anonymous submission form for students to voice their concerns directly about any policy or action. This would provide a safe space for students to express their opinions without fear of retribution, giving the student body a greater voice in shaping decision-making.
“[We would like to] have a submission form underneath that Policy Impact Tracker, that students can click on and voice their concerns about [these policies],” Dorathy said. “It would be anonymous, because it does have to do with U.Va. administration, [but would] give people more of a safe space to voice their concerns.”
Lima plans to strengthen collaboration among student organizations by creating Advocacy Networks. These networks will unite CIOs with shared goals like sustainability or diversity, enabling them to pool resources, share expertise and amplify their collective voice. He will allocate funding for joint projects and facilitate regular meetings between student groups and University administration to align advocacy efforts.
By working with University leadership, he aims to ensure these networks are supported in decision-making, creating a stronger, more coordinated student presence at the University.
“I am making it a point of reaching out to student organizations and asking about their policy priorities so I can try to implement them and make them my policy priorities too,” Lima said. “I see organizations’ extremely limited role in those areas [as something] I could possibly help with, by being a bridge between those organizations and the University administration.”
These candidates hope to empower students to achieve goals through strengthening networks and communications, with the aim of achieving specific policies through group collaboration.
Efficiency
The ACE Vision’s platform focuses on efficiency in improving the University’s systems to better serve students, with an emphasis on affordability and accessibility. According to Benefield, one key area of her platform is an improvement to parking on Grounds.
Benefield’s policy proposes a tiered parking pass system that adjusts pricing based on financial need and work-study participation. This would provide discounted passes for qualifying students and lower-cost permits for spots farther from central Grounds. Benefield also plans to collaborate with Parking and Transportation Services to create a fair and flexible pricing structure that ensures affordable parking access for all students.
Dorathy plans to address efficiency in Student Council by focusing on proactive leadership within Student Council, training and increased collaboration. She said she wants to review existing policies and implement training for budgeting, marketing and lobbying to better equip members. Part of this initiative would include furthering initiatives started this year, such as a “budget office hours” in which Student Council directors meet with the VPA before submitting their budget for review. To expand on this, she hopes to increase representatives’ understanding of budgeting through proposed trainings, which could help address financial deficits in providing funding to CIOs.
To increase transparency, she proposes mandatory cross-branch meetings to unify the Council and improve resource allocation, while also introducing a new IT committee under Data Science to enhance support for student programs.
“I think that there is this view that Student Council is operating behind this closed curtain,” Dorathy said, “I really want to open that curtain, so our members are able to be more knowledgeable about what another committee is doing.”
Lima’s efficiency plan centers around enhancing the allocation and use of the Student Activities Fund to better support student organizations. Lima said he aims to adjust the SAF to keep up with inflation, so student organizations can maintain their purchasing power year after year, even as costs rise.
By working with the BOV and other University administrative departments, he hopes to ensure fair fee adjustments, protecting affordability for students while increasing resources for organizations in need. This strategy will streamline how SAF funds are distributed, improving the overall efficiency of the system.
Through enacting all of their policies with a focus on efficiency, the ACE Vision candidates hope to make long-lasting changes within Student Council.
Message to Students
The ACE Vision hopes to provide concrete policies to support students, and be strong student leaders as the University continues to evolve.
“I am looking forward to an election that is focused on policies and focused on the future of U.Va. and student self governance,” Benefield said. “It will be really important for students to vote for someone that they're truly confident in [and] that have empathy to lead during these trying times.”
Voting is set to start March 3 and will be open through March 5. The Cavalier Daily and UBE will host a Student Council presidential debate March 2 at 6 p.m.
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