Proposed Constitutions

For the Spring 2025 UBE Election, the Class Councils have submitted four revised constitutions. The last time some of these Constitutions were amended was in 2002. These new constitutions accurately reflect the role Class Councils play in student self-governance. Many of the changes reflect the reality of the Councils today. They also guarantee that every undergraduate school has at least one representative. The other changes standardize Council operations so that there are not significant differences in governing structure every year. Approving these constitutions will preserve the Honor of our Class Councils and lead to better student self-governance.

A list of the changes:

  • A Guarantee that the School of Data Science, School of Commerce, and all other undergraduate schools are represented.

  • A guarantee that transfer students are represented.

  • Establishes the position of Class Treasurer with the responsibility of managing the finances of the Class.

  • Changes to these Constitutions cannot be amended without the consent of the student body.

  • Introduces a preamble that gives the Councils a clear mission of: “fostering and maintaining a sense of community, loyalty, and responsibility among all students towards their Class, the University of Virginia, and the Alumni Association.“

  • A standardized impeachment procedure, makes executive board members (Treasurer, Secretary, etc.) eligible for impeachment.

  • The Vice President breaks votes in the case of a tie.

  • The Councils can create the committees that they feel the Class needs, instead of requiring committees on certain subjects (Like Technology).

FAQs

Voting begins on March 3rd and ends on March 5th. You can vote to approve these changes using the link in your email from the University Board of Elections (UBE). The ballot to approve of these changes can be found under the “Referenda” section of voting.

These constitutions make many changes, but here are the most impactful:

  • Each school with undergraduate students will be guaranteed representation on the Class Councils. 
  • The position of Class Treasurer is created in order to manage class finances.
  • Class Councils may form committees as they see fit to address specific class needs. (The current model strictly mandates five specific standing committees). 
  • Clear and standardized instructions on removing class council members, the President, and Vice President. 
  • Future changes to the Constitutions cannot be made without a student-wide referendum. 

The other changes are mainly grammatical in nature. For example, we checked standardized capitalization. We use the same terms for constitutional positions across the Class Councils. Additionally, we added a preamble that describes the Council and its functions.

 First, turnout must be higher than 10% for these changes to go into affect. Further, these constitutions will have to be approved of by a majority of each Class. If the referendum passes then the new constitutions will take effect for the 2025-2026 academic year. 

You can find PDFs of the new constitutions on the UBE website. 

 

Vote on March 3rd! If you want to help campaign for these changes simply repost our Instagram post related to explaining the changes. If you want to be even more involved, reach out to Second-Year Class President Jackson Sleadd (tdy8vs@virginia.edu).

Questioning changes in student self-governance is important. Reach out to Second-Year Class President Jackson Sleadd (tdy8vs@virginia.edu) for more information.