Student Council unanimously approves 2023 summer budget, confirms ten new CIOS

Student Council unanimously approved its 2023 summer budget — which reduced funding by over $34,000 compared to the 2022 summer budget — during Tuesday’s meeting. Representatives also heard from and approved the formation of 10 new Contracted Independent Organizations and voted to amend their bylaws regarding the ability to file complaints about fellow Student Council members.

Holly Sims, vice president for administration and fourth-year Batten student, presented the summer 2023 budget during last week’s meeting. Sims said the reduction in the budget reflects more efficient spending by Student Council.

“I think it’s a success and that we really know what we can maximize our money on what we know will work,” Sims said.

The most dramatic decrease in funding is a $24,250 reduction in the Executive Administrative Operations Committee budget, which previously oversaw the University Networks of Care pilot program — the program was aimed at creating an alternative to police intervention in dorms for students experiencing mental health crises. Due to administrative challenges in accessing sensitive data about the number of police responses to mental health crises in dorms, Student Council decided to end the pilot program.

The budget passed with 16 yeas, zero nays and zero abstentions.

The General Body also voted to pass SB23-24, a bill to amend its bylaws regarding rules and ethics complaints. This piece of legislation allows for any general member of Student Council — rather than just representatives or executive officers as was previously stated — to file complaints about fellow members, regardless of whether they were directly impacted by the constitutional or ethical violation.

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Local bar Coupe DeVille’s reopens for fourth-year send off

Live music wafted up Elliewood Tuesday evening as fourth-year students carried their student IDs and fourth-year cards down familiar stairs for the long-awaited reopening of popular local bar Coupe DeVille’s. After almost two years of closure following a kitchen fire and delays in construction, the bar surprised fourth-years with exclusive access to a private concert — the $20 tickets sold out in under a minute.

Coupe DeVille’s — known affectionately as “Coupe’s” — unexpectedly shut down September 2021 when a grease fire damaged the kitchen and upstairs seating area. Manager Ryan Rooney told The Cavalier Daily that Coupe’s could have reopened by Christmas of that year, but supply chain delays prevented them from replacing kitchen equipment.

With a reopening originally planned for late last summer, Coupe’s remained closed throughout the school year, citing construction stalled by the widespread labor shortage.

Fourth-year students, however, received an email Monday night announcing the establishment’s re-entry onto the late night scene with a private concert featuring “The Back Porch Project” band from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Tuesday.

An unspecified number of tickets on sale for $20 each through the LineLeap app sold out in under one minute. Coupe’s later released 50 more tickets at 8:45 p.m. the day of the event.

Some students cited the high cost of tickets as a barrier to entry. Fourth-year College student Kasey Kiefer said she chose not to purchase a ticket even though Coupe’s was her favorite bar.

“I wasn’t going to pay a $20 cover to get into a Corner bar in Charlottesville, but Coupe’s is still really nostalgic for me and I’m excited to hopefully go again before I graduate,” Kiefer said.