I just want to start off by saying that Tuesday’s Student Assembly meeting was insufferably boring.
With that said, two bills passed, the William and Mary in Richmond Internship Act and the Serving Williamsburg II Act, and they both can positively impact College students and the greater Williamsburg area.
The William and Mary in Richmond Internship Act allocates $940 from the off-campus account to pay for parking and gasoline so students interning in Virginia’s General Assembly are not burdened with transportation costs.
Besides Senator Matt Pinsker’s ’09 requisite complaints about the SA funding things that should be the responsibility of the College, all senators seemed to be on board or merely voted for it to keep the meeting moving. (Sometimes I just can’t tell.)
Nevertheless, this bill is a necessary one. It puts student money back in the hands of students. After covering the SA for more than a year and half, it would be foolish of me to ask for more.
The Serving Williamsburg II Act amends the finance code to set aside $10,000 from the consolidated reserve for the purposes of funding community service programs in the Williamsburg area. The same regulations, with a few minor changes, that clubs follow when asking the SA for program funding will apply to community organizations seeking the SA’s support.
Although this bill will not directly assist students, which is my usual barometer for judging legislation, it will directly assist those Williamsburg residents who do not have access to the luxury of living in a protected bubble. As College students we are a most privileged bunch and this bill is a solid step in acknowledging that. Even the perennially stingy Pinsker decided to let this one go through without him complaining about it.
But for their extreme banality, our senators seem to have their heads on straight for the coming semester.
