p. The Student Assembly held its first meeting of the semester Tuesday night. Sen. Joe Luppino-Esposito, a junior, presided over the meeting for the first time as Senate chair. He shares chairmanship with Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, a senior, who served as chair last semester.
p. “Scott did an excellent job as chairman and will be a hard act to follow,” Luppino-Esposito said.
p. He also said that he wants to make meetings more open to the public and work to improve relations between the city of Williamsburg and College students.
p. Senior Victor Sulkowski stepped down from his position as senator for personal reasons and was replaced by senior James Evans, who was sworn in at the meeting.
Luppino-Esposito declined to comment on Sulkowski’s resignation but said that he was glad to be working with Evans.
p. Evans has spent the past few years working with the executive branch of the SA. He ran for an SA position his freshman year and lost.
p. “Even though I only have two and a half months, I hope I can knock some sense into the Senate,” he said.
p. The SA passed the Campus Wetlands Reclamation Act, sponsored by Sens. Zach Pilchen and Walter McClean, both sophomores. The bill allocates $892.50 from the consolidated reserve fund to purchase paludal Virginian wildflowers to be planted in and around the swamp behind the Health Center. The purpose of the plants is to beautify the land, cut down on the swamp’s odor and enhance the biodiversity of the area
p. “We want to take the swamp and turn it into something not smelly or hideous-looking,” McClean said. “It’s good for the campus and good for the wildlife area.”
p. The seeds will be purchased for and planted by the botany club and SEAC, both of whom volunteered to cover the labor of planting the flowers.
p. The bill passed 13-7-0, with some senators expressing frustration with the SA spending so much from the consolidated reserve.
p. “We continue spending on an item-by-item basis,” Senator Meghan McCarthy, a senior, said. “I don’t have [a] problem with the swamp, I have a problem with spending when we don’t know how much money is in the consolidated reserve.”
p. In addition, the SA passed the Constitutional Committee Review Act, sponsored by Luppino-Esposito, extending the deadline of the Constitutional Committee to March 5. The bill passed 18-2-0.
p. They also passed the Coalition of Youth Political Organizations Act, sponsored by Luppino-Esposito and Pilchen, 18-0-1.
p. The SA confirmed five nominees to the executive board, each by unanimous consent. Junior Seth Levy was reconfirmed as Secretary of Public Affairs, junior Will Angley, senior Katherine Zapach and senior Adam Reeves were confirmed to the review board, and junior Kelsey Williamson was confirmed as Director of Internal Affairs.