SA passes bill, adds referenda to election ballot

The Student Assembly debated and passed two bills Tuesday night in their final meeting before yesterday’s SA elections.

A large group of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity members attended the meeting to show their support for the APO Assistance Act, sponsored by Sens. Michael Tsidulko ’11 and Michael Douglass ’11.

The APO Assistance Act is intended to help APO Campus Escort.

The service provides safe late-night transport for students across the campus of the College of William and Mary.

APO currently has only one old and unreliable golf cart.

According to APO, students who use the service wait up to an hour for transport to arrive.

The bill would attempt to ease the current strain on the service by funding the maintenance fees of an additional golf cart.

A one-time appropriation of $575 would provide for a one-semester trial period.

The fee could be extended into a regular program depending on the vote of the senate. The support of the numerous APO members in the audience ultimately proved unnecessary as the senate unanimously accepted the bill.

Despite voting in favor of the legislation, Sen. Caroline Mullis ’09 complained that the bill had not come before the senate sooner.

“I would like to have heard this bill so that it could have been done this semester for the trial period,” she said.

The senate also considered the Triple Referenda Act, sponsored by Sen. Ben Brown ’11.

The bill added three yes-or-no referendum questions to the ballot from yesterday’s SA election.

The questions regarded several possible SA projects.

The possible projects included a possible $112 fee to replace the grass on Busch field with an artificial turf system, a $26 fee to install an irrigation system on Intramural Field and a recurring fee of $0.30 to fund the year-round delivery of The Onion.

Brown’s bill passed unanimously without debate.

One bill was introduced to the senate as new business.

The Free Planners for Students to Help Keep Them Organized Act, sponsored by Sen. Mullis would appropriate $8,500 to fund the production and distribution of Fall 2009 planners adorned with the SA name and logo to students.

During the public comment section of the senate meeting, Honor Council member Will Perkins ’11 expressed the intention of the Honor Council, “to build some bridges with the SA.”
He recalled the recent animosity expressed by SA members toward the Honor Council, and argued that the two groups could “play nice.”

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