Student Experience

UVA students step up to guide and govern

The thousands of new students at the University of Virginia this fall can find support from faculty, staff and administrators. They also have another support group that knows exactly what they’re going through.

They have each other.

Students receive support and services through Student Council, investigations of violations of the University’s Honor Code through the Honor Committee, resolve conflicts among themselves through the University Judiciary Committee and learn UVA news by reading the Cavalier Daily.

Student self-governance is a time-honored tradition at UVA and a unique facet of every student’s experience on Grounds. Here are a few of this school year’s student leaders:

Allison McVey, University Judiciary Committee chair

Allison McVey standing outside her Lawn room door

Allison McVey stands in the doorway of her Lawn residence. As University Judiciary Committee chair, McVey helps find resolutions when students are accused of violating the University’s Standards of Conduct. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

When Allison McVey applied for colleges, she added UVA to her list of schools on a whim. She knew it had top-notch programs and figured she should give it a shot. Then, she was nominated for a Jefferson Scholarship. The scholarship covers the full cost of attendance at UVA for four years.

The process involved extensive interviews with alumni and current Jefferson Scholars, exposing her to the concept of student self-governance and its importance at UVA.

“The more I learned, the more I sort of fell in love,” McVey said.

McVey quickly joined the First Year Judiciary Committee, which investigates alleged violations of UVA’s Standards of Conduct and holds first-year students accountable.

“Five people can sit and listen to the same story and have five different versions of that story. I think it’s a really rich process, where we can come up with a resolution across that difference of viewpoints,” McVey said.

McVey, a political philosophy, policy and law major, now chairs the committee.

“What I hope is that through my work on the (University Judiciary Committee), I can help a student who’s nervous or very discouraged about a situation feel a little better. If I’ve done that, I can be proud,” she said.

Thomas Ackleson, Honor Committee chair

Thomas Ackleson sitting at a secretary in his Lawn room

Thomas Ackleson hails from Chama, New Mexico. He said his upbringing instilled in him the values of honesty and integrity. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

Thomas Ackleson would be the first to admit that expecting college students to never lie, cheat or steal will eventually let you down. He would know. He chairs UVA’s Honor Committee.

“The idea that we can all trust each other simply because we’re students here is really beautiful,” Ackleson said. “Is it idealistic? Yes. Is that something that we could practically achieve? Probably not, but it’s what we’re striving for.”

UVA’s Honor System should allow a student to leave a laptop in the library unattended while grabbing coffee, or a professor to administer a take-home exam. The combination of responsibility and trust embedded in the Honor System is what attracted Ackleson to the organization. It was familiar to him. Ackleson grew up on a ranch in Chama, New Mexico, just south of the state’s border with Colorado.

“You have to be self-sufficient, and you have to trust other people. It’s pretty rural; it’s 20 miles to the nearest hospital,” Ackleson, a biomedical engineering major, said.

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Chairing the Honor Committee is a job he takes seriously and has since he joined the committee as a first-year student.

“This was the one club I wanted to be part of more than anything else. I showed up to my investigator/counselor interview in a suit. I missed the memo, because nobody else there was in a suit,” Ackleson recalled, laughing.

Ackleson said he was raised with the Honor Committee’s values.

“To be honest is to be good, that is the prime directive of your life, that’s what I was taught,” he said.

Clay Dickerson, Student Council president

Clay Dickerson standing between two racks of clothes

Student Council president Clay Dickerson poses for a photo in the career closet he expanded. Growing up in a low-income family, Dickerson said he relied on cheap or free clothing to build out his wardrobe. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Clay Dickerson knows the importance of a first impression.

As the son of a single mother earning a low income, he didn’t always have access to what helped him feel confident: namely, clothes. So, the fourth-year student made frequent treks to the pay-by-the-pound used clothing store two miles from his high school in Lubbock, Texas.

“It became this constant means of expression,” Dickerson, a double major in history and drama, said. “First impressions are so important, and how are you going to feel confident in yourself and make a good first impression if you don’t like how you look?”

As president of UVA’s Student Council, he has revived the group’s career clothing closet after noticing students lacked the professional attire needed for job interviews and internships. Partnering with an organization called SWAP, a student clothing exchange, he helped stock the closet with donated items.

“I wanted to blow that up into something bigger and better that hopefully will last beyond my time here,” Dickerson said. “The idea is that I can’t come to this University and have all my problems solved, but when I leave, I can hopefully solve those problems for others.”

Soon, students will be able to scan a QR code, enter their size and preferences and receive a Student Council-funded box with a few items to start their professional wardrobes.

The goal is for every student to find professional attire to make them feel confident.

“We go our whole lives saying, ‘If I were in charge, everything would be different.’ I’m in charge of this now, and I can make it better,” Dickerson said.

Naima Sawaya, Cavalier Daily editor in chief

Naima Sawaya sitting in front of the Cavalier Daily archives

Naima Sawaya poses in front of the Cavalier Daily archives. Sawaya said she joined the paper as a columnist during her first year because she “had a lot of opinions.” (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

Naima Sawaya has a favorite question.

“Why Cav Daily?” The editor in chief of UVA’s student newspaper asks her staffers.

“I really like asking it because everyone has a different answer, and everyone’s answers change over time. It’s a space that allows that,” Sawaya said.

When Sawaya, a Williamsburg native, joined the Cavalier Daily in January of her first year, she wasn’t expecting to love it. She didn’t think of herself as a journalist or even much of a writer. She was simply looking for ways to become more involved on Grounds.

“My friends were tired of listening to my opinions, so I joined the opinion section and was an opinion columnist,” Sawaya, a religious studies major, said.

Her own answer to the question of “Why Cav Daily?” has evolved, too.

“I really enjoy understanding the spaces I move through in a holistic way,” Sawaya said.

During her time at the Cavalier Daily, the newspaper started a puzzles desk, one of the only student publications in the country to do so. Sawaya has also focused on stories that don’t fit a traditional news category, like a feature on a cappella groups at UVA and a summer print edition geared toward incoming first-year students.

Ultimately, Sawaya sees herself as a kind of teacher.

“There’s no journalism school at UVA, so we’re like a practicum for young journalists. I don’t think I knew that when I came in, but it’s what I’m most proud of,” she said.