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Athletic Affairs Committee

+ Meet the Chair: Ben Powell
Ben Powell is entering his second year as Chair of Student Council’s Athletic Affairs Committee. He is a third-year Computer Science major and Engineering-Business minor from Austin, Texas. Ben’s favorite activities are playing and watching sports (especially swimming and baseball) and volunteering with Madison House as a swim coach. He is also a member of Fourth Year Trustees and involved with First Year Seminar and Agape Christian Fellowship. As Chair of the Athletics Committee, Ben is most looking forward to making Homecomings at UVA a much larger event for students.

The Athletic Affairs Committee is responsible for addressing the views and concerns of students regarding athletics at the University, including recreational and amateur athletics as well as varsity athletics.

Recent News & Updates:


Upcoming Events: There are no events.

Current Committee initiatives include:

  • Homecomings 2011: Our biggest goal moving forward as a committee will be to increase student awareness and excitement surrounding Homecomings at UVA. We have researched other schools’ Homecomings celebrations and are preparing events for Homecomings Week 2011.
  • Football Shuttle Service: We are launching a football shuttle service to take students from 14th street and Rugby Road areas to the stadium on game day.
  • Water Program at Football Games: In conjunction with several other groups around Grounds and the athletics department, we have established a program to provide water for students at home football games when the heat index exceeds a critical threshold.
  • UVA Football Marketing Team: We are working with Hoo Crew to launch a team of 15-20 students that will work to increase student excitement for our home football games.
  • Lawn Tailgating: We are reviewing and evaluating the Lawn tailgating experience in conjunction with Residence Life and the Office of the Dean of Students.
  • Player, Coach, and Student Interaction: One of our primary goals in the past has been to increase opportunities for students to get to know players and coaches. We continue to look for additional ways to get this to happen and look to expand on our successful UVA Football Night at O’hill in Fall 2010, featuring Coach London himself.

Past Committee initiatives include:

  • Virginia Club Sports Council: We’ve created a new Club Sports Council which seeks to promote Club Sports at the University of Virginia by offering organization, centralization, advertisement, and logistical support. See virginiaclubsports.com for more information.
  • Reviewing the Football Gameday Script: We worked with the Athletics Department to review the game day script and determine if there was a better order of events leading up to kickoff to capture student enthusiasm. We also changed some of the game day music, including the addition of 300 Violin Orchestra.
  • Student Survey for Presidential Search: We are preparing to contribute to the recruitment of the next University president by presenting a comprehensive review of the student experience in athletics.
  • Improving Sustainable Practices in Athletics: The committee is partnering with the University Unity project and the Environmental Sustainability committee to ensure that our games are as ’green’ as possible. Recently, the committee has worked to promote the EPA’s Football Gameday Challenge, a competition in which University of Virginia ranked first in the ACC in pounds of materials recycled on per-capita attendance.
  • Overturning the Sign Ban: when conversations with the Athletics Department ended, the committee sent thousands of emails to the student body, asking them to wear blue to the next football game in a demonstration against the sign ban. The ban was quickly repealed.
  • Co-sponsorships with Hoo Crew: the committee worked with Hoo Crew to increase turnout and student involvement at University sporting events.

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