URGOV.org is a hub for civic engagement in Richmond City Government. Our mission is to provide a platform to educate and empower full participation in Richmond City Government. We are a student-led and student-organized team who are dedicated to connecting the Richmond community with Richmond’s city leadership. As such, we play a crucial role as a resource to the public by providing up-to-date information about local government officials, the annual budget, and other goings-on in the Richmond community. Our recaps of monthly City Council and School Board meetings, in addition to occasional special recaps about budget hearings and individual district meetings, are the most critical aspect and asset of URGOV. Our recaps allow those individuals who could not attend the meetings to get a detailed account of what was said and done. We also provide overviews on Virginia state politics and other recent political events, such as upcoming elections. We continue to branch out our content for the local community by including Voting Guides, student research, and so on.
We are a team from the University of Richmond dedicated to sharing information and updates about local and state government. URGOV was originally created by student Peter CampoBasso, ’14, with the encouragement of CCE program manager Adrienne Piazza. After attending a City Council meeting for his Contemporary Richmond Politics course, he realized how unprepared people are at understanding and staying updated on local politics, and so he created a guide for students attending City Council meetings.
With the help of Bonner Scholar and UR Downtown Student Coordinator Andrew Talbot, ’15, the guide was translated into a website called RVAGOV. Now, after years of different correspondents updating the website, we have since moved to URGOV.org. The city had changed their website domain from richmond.gov to rva.gov, and so they asked if we could change our name to dispel confusion. The new name URGOV is fitting regardless, as we’ve expanded from Richmond politics into state politics, although we continue to value how local politics impacts our daily lives.
Correspondents
Nadia Iqbal, ’22
Nadia Iqbal is a junior majoring in Leadership Studies and PPEL (Philosophy, Politics, Economics, & Law) with a concentration in Philosophy. She is from Queens, NY and is planning to go to law school. She is very proud to be left-handed, and loves mushrooms more than anything else.
Chris Torres, ’24
Chris is a sophomore majoring in PPEL with a concentration in Economics. He is from Houston, TX and is planning to go to law school. He likes exploring the Richmond area and hanging out with friends on the weekends.
Interested in joining our team?
If you are a UR Student, we are looking for dedicated volunteer correspondents to join our team. We want to build up the site and make it a top local resource for up-to-date city and state government coverage. Contact Sasha Hollister at shollist@richmond.edu to learn more.
URGOV 