Student Council held their first general body meeting for the 2025-26 term under the new executive board Tuesday. Goals for the coming term include expanding financial services provided by Student Council to students, increasing funding for Contracted Independent Organizations and fostering collaboration among student groups. Representatives also discussed ways to tackle persisting issues surrounding on-Grounds housing.
Clay Dickerson, Student Council president and third-year College student, will be working with Michael Mitchell, vice president for organizations and second-year Commerce student, and Princess Wuraola Olubuse-Omisore, vice president for administration and fourth-year College student for the 2025-26 term.
“Princess, Michael [and I] ran with the idea of a Brighter Tomorrow,” Dickerson said. “As cheesy as it is, we really believe in it. Our three big things are equity, unity and empowerment.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Dickerson said many of his goals fall under the idea of expanding the services he provided as chief of support and access services — a branch dedicated to supplying resources and direct services to students. In this role, he worked to provide direct services to students, such as subsidizing the price of textbooks and offering low-cost bus rides between the University and Dulles and Richmond airports. He emphasized his strong belief in financial accessibility as well as his hope to ensure a positive environment among students.
Wuraola Olubuse-Omisore said one of her key goals for this term is to write legislation for a chief development officer position. She said a CDO would work with both herself and the chief financial officer to secure more funding for Student Council, especially through outreach with University donors.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Wuraola Olubuse-Omisore said the addition of a CDO would allow the VPA to work with two financial directors, rather than just one, to improve funding access and utilization for developmental projects. Currently the only director position that exists for finances in Student Council is the chief financial officer.
This meeting also consisted of the selection of four new directors on the Student Council Executive Board. According to the Student Council website, members of the Executive Board are tasked with advocating for students, connecting students to the administration, and guiding the goals and commitments of the organization. Directors are chosen by the Student Council President and approved by representatives.
The first of the Student Council directors to be selected was third-year College student Imane Akhanous. During a closed session meeting April 1, Akhanous was elected as chair of the representative body. At Tuesday’s meeting, she noted one of her goals to ensure all vacant representative seats are full within the general body.
Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Student Council members had applied to various director positions for this term. Four resolutions unanimously passed with discussion during the meeting to approve directors chosen by Dickerson for four branches of Student Council, which were chief of cabinet, director of coalition engagement, director of University relations and chief of SAS.
For the 2025-26 term, second-year College student Saehee Pérez, third-year Batten and College student Lily Dorathy, second-year College student Emily Frost and second-year College student Micah Andrews will serve in these roles, respectively. Dorathy and Frost are both serving for a second term.
During legislative discussion — the section of every general body meeting in which resolutions and bills are discussed — Frost was specifically asked how she plans to increase transparency regarding the everyday tasks and responsibilities of Student Council members. She responded that she hopes to improve engagement with her biweekly newsletter that highlights events on Grounds as well as to increase Instagram posts so students and administration are aware of resolutions being passed and other discussions taking place during general body meetings.
“Something that me and Clay are really focused on is coming up with a posting schedule for Instagram,” Frost said. “I would love to do regular, consistent updates saying ‘here’s what the [representative] body is up to, here’s legislation being passed.’”
Andrews also stated her goals for the term, specifically that she hopes to focus on financial independence and accessibility and the continuation and expansion of ongoing SAS services. Andrews said she plans to improve financial accessibility through hosting a series of fundraisers throughout the year, and also hopes to find innovative ways to expand ongoing service projects for students.
“I think that sometimes SAS can be a stagnant organization because we're not really coming up with new things, we're just continuing on with old, but I want to look for innovation within our five different agencies,” Andrews said.
After Student Council representatives stated their objectives for the year, conversation shifted to a robust discussion regarding on-Grounds housing. This topic has been a repeated discussion of many general body meetings as there are a number of representatives who feel more on-Grounds housing needs to be built for students due to unreliable off-Grounds landlords who lease apartments at unsustainable prices.
At Tuesday’s meeting, first-year College Rep. Patrick Jo, said a key goal for Student Council should be to pass resolutions for the University to build more housing, especially due to the University’s recent decision to deprioritize upperclassmen in the on-Grounds housing selection process.
“I think we need to build more housing on Grounds and I think we should work towards that for the remainder of the year,” Jo said. “Hopefully the University does build more housing, but I think we should push for that in light of the [decision to deprioritize upperclassmen] that just came out.”
However, Darden Rep. Catie Dolan said Student Council needs to focus less on passing resolutions and more on executing existing initiatives. She emphasized that the housing issue is an issue of supply and demand — meaning it cannot just be solved with a resolution — and that Student Council should think from an economist’s perspective in terms of the feasibility of this objective.
“You can’t keep passing resolutions,” Dolan said. “What are you doing to actually continue on [to the] next steps? Resolutions are [only] going to get you so far.”
At the start of this meeting, Dickerson also presented an update regarding an initiative started by Abel Liu, former Student Council president and class of 2022 alumnus. Liu worked on a training plan to change the University Police Department’s intervention approach to students experiencing mental health crises in dormitories. In 2021, Liu told 29News he did not want students in crisis being responded to by UPD as it often led to them being handcuffed or taken into custody.
“After four long years, [Liu’s plan is] finally into the training system for the UPD, so there is a place to show that there is a safe, careful and mindful approach to intervention and interaction with on-Grounds residents,” Dickerson said.
Also during the legislative discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, representatives who were not present at the transition ceremony held March 30 were sworn in for the 2025-26 term.
Student Council will reconvene for a regularly scheduled general body meeting next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
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