The student voice: Serving on the BOV can be a 24/7 role
Stepping into the role of UVA’s student Board of Visitors member this spring, Lisa Kopelnik (Col class of ’25) already was well-versed in UVA’s administrative processes and its leaders. She’d just served as chair of the University Judiciary Committee.
But she was surprised by how technical the conversation quickly turned. Board members dove into UVA’s finances and operations, each leaning on their areas of deep expertise.
“In this role, a lot of it is just bigger thinking. What do you want to do? What do you want your impact to be?” Kopelnik says.
Kopelnik is UVA’s 43rd student BOV member, part of a long line of accomplished undergraduate and graduate students who have served in the role. The full board consists of 17 voting members, who are appointed by Virginia’s governor for four-year terms, and two nonvoting members who serve one-year terms—a full-time student and a faculty member. Student members represent the voice of the student body.
“I tried very hard to minimize the amount of times I used the word ‘I’ or ‘me,’ because I never wanted to come off as being about myself or showcasing my opinion,” says Lillian Rojas (Batten class of ’24), who served from June 2023 to May 2024. “I wanted to make it clear that I was talking about the students. I’m the representative for the students.”
Students spent years lobbying the BOV for the privilege to represent their peers, ultimately winning BOV approval in March 1983. So far, Glynn Key (Col class of ’86, Law class of ’89) is the only former student member who has also been appointed a full board member. Key, an accomplished lawyer who was foundational in the creation of the Ridley Scholarship Program, run by the UVA Alumni Association, was the student member from 1988 to 1989 and a BOV member from 2004 to 2012.
“Glynn … was really great about reaching out to students,” says Catherine Neale Bean (Col class of ’06), who served as a student representative from 2005 to 2006. Key and then–BOV member Syd Dorsey (Arch class of ’82, Darden class of ’87) took her under their wings, Bean remembers. “Being women, they started conversations with me early and often,” Bean says. “We were just very regularly in touch.”
The work of the board—and the student BOV member—varies widely, depending on what’s happening on Grounds. Construction projects, including John Paul Jones Arena, and the creation of AccessUVA, a financial aid program, were front and center when John Rocco Rodney (Col class of ’04) served.
AccessUVA “was something I was really proud to be a part of,” Rodney says. “It’s made a big difference, and it’s a lasting program and legacy.”
Tragedy and trauma—such as the pandemic and the November 2022 shooting that left three students dead—also can dominate the BOV’s work. For Lily Roberts (Arch class of ’23), much of her term focused on advocating for student needs after the 2022 shooting.
Immediately after the tragedy, Roberts attended an emergency BOV meeting while helping other student leaders gather information and organize memorials. “As soon as I understood my role that hit, and then there were several months of trying to rebuild the community and provide different resources and different means of communication to try to sew the community back together after such a tragic event,” Roberts says.
Even without major events on Grounds, the day-to-day job can prove unpredictable. Some days, Rojas was attending classes and meeting friends for dinner like any other student. Other days, she was directing students with general questions to the right UVA resources, participating in BOV committee meetings and taking part in student-led meetings. “I call the role 24/7,” Rojas says. “You just never know what’s going to happen.
