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Of the 12 bills passed by the Student Assembly senate between the April 8 inauguration and the Sept. 30 meeting, five have been executed in full. Of those five, only two called for any action. The remaining seven are in various stages of progress; sponsors said all have at least some plan for further action, though two have been inactive since passage.
Among the SA’s successes is the Post Office Opening Later Act, sponsored by Sens. Walter McClean ’09 and Matt Beato ’09.
The bill, which requested that the College post office change its Saturday hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. to 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to accommodate more students, was executed the week it passed. According to McClean, the Post Office already had to drop one hour on Saturdays.
“This schedule change fit in with their timing,” he said.
The second bill that has been fully enacted, sponsored by Sens. Ross Gillingham ’10 and Sarah Rojas ’10, provided funding for Steer Clear to purchase a second van and expand its service.
The other three executed bills called for a letter expressing disapproval of the presidential selection process, encouraged College President Taylor Reveley to sign the Amethyst Initiative and set aside funding for a Virginia senate debate at the College of William and Mary which, despite lobbying from students, did not occur.
The AED Act, sponsored by Sen. Ben Brown ’11, met with less success. The bill, which allocates almost $20,000 for the purchase of automatic external defibrillators to be stationed around campus, also included a stipulation that all future RAs and Head Residents be CPR and AED certified.
According to Brown, this last requirement met with resistance from Residence Life.
The AEDs, though funded by the SA, will be ordered by Residence Life. Their exact placement is still under consideration.
Bills currently in progress include the distribution of copies of The Virginia Gazette and The Onion, a satirical weekly newspaper; a committee of students to select a mascot; and the purchase of a memorial tree for Virginia Tech, for which money was sent but a tree has not yet been planted.
Two bills left over from last spring, the Kegs Act, sponsored by Sen. Matt Pinsker ’09, and the Save-a-Professor Act, sponsored by Sen. Michael Douglass ’10 and McClean, have not yet been acted on, though the sponsors said they plan to do so.
The Kegs Act, which seeks to allow kegs on campus, will be considered by the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Task Force, which has not yet met this term.
Particularly relevant due to recent cuts in the College’s budget, the Save-a-Professor Act will be discussed when McClean and Douglass meet with the administration later this week.
