During the Student Assembly Senate meeting Feb. 6, senators discussed three new bills, including one that aims to decrease the price of menstrual products at the College of William and Mary. Senators also passed two bills that had been discussed in previous weeks.
Chair of the Senate Alaina Shreves ’18 introduced The . Act (The Period Act). Sen. Ellie Thomas ’20, Class of 2020 President Kelsey Vita ’20 and Class of 2021 President David DeMarco ’21 are also sponsors of the bill.
If passed, the bill would task sponsors with working with the College to sell menstrual products in locations that are open 24 hours a day, sell larger quantities of menstrual products and sell them at lower prices in student markets.
Additionally, senators would install baskets supplied with free menstrual products at different locations across campus for emergency situations. This initiative would be a pilot to determine its sustainability. The last part of this bill would allocate $1,018 from SA reserves to purchase menstrual products, baskets and signs to support the emergency basket initiative.
The bill would allocate $632 for eight boxes of tampons bought in bulk, $336 for four boxes of pads ordered in bulk, $30 for baskets and $20 for signs to go with the baskets.
“This bill is about increasing the accessibility and affordability of menstrual products on campus,” Shreves said. “… The other portion of the bill is putting small amounts of products around campus.”
Shreves assigned this bill to all senate committees for review. The senate will discuss and vote on The . Act during its Feb. 13 meeting.
The senate discussed The Game Console Storage Extension Act, sponsored by Sen. Jack Bowden ’18. If passed, the bill would allocate $306 from the SA reserves to purchase portable external hard drives for the gaming consoles in the Sadler Center.
The last new bill discussed, The Assembly Accountability Act, was sponsored by Sen. Sikander Zakriya ’19 and Sen. Brendan Boylan ’19. Two weeks ago, Honor Council presented a proposal to the SA that would bar senators from serving concurrently in an Honor Council position. This bill would codify that proposal, adding a clause to the senate’s candidacy requirements that says, “No individual serving in an elected office of the Honor Council at the time of the Student Assembly Election shall be eligible to run for an elected office in the Student Assembly.”
“We are putting in this code revision our electoral processes, speaking to the conflict of interest regarding how the election processes are different,” Boylan said. “You can’t campaign for Honor Council, this is all just tying it in together.”
Also at this week’s meeting:
• Senators passed The Hailing Cesar Documentary Screening Act, sponsored by Class of 2018 President Laini Boyd ’18, Sen. Brendan Boylan ’19 and Sen. Sikander Zakriya ’19. The bill allocates $3,108 from the Student Assembly reserves to pay for the speaking package and lodging for Eduardo Chavez, the grandson of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
• Senators passed the World Interfaith Harmony Week Act of 2018, sponsored by Sen. Ellie Thomas ’20. The bill allocates $50 to purchase Coexist stickers and allocates $7 to purchase and print flyers to advertise the event.
