The Student Assembly held its weekly meeting Tuesday and discussed allowing the Honor Council to apply for SA funding later this year.
The SA voted in favor of the Finance Code Renewal Act, which removes a clause from the current code that forbids the SA to fund the Honor Council. The passage of the Finance Code Renewal Act leaves no restriction on the SA to fund the Honor Council.
“The reason the Senate added this to the code [last year]… was because the Student Assembly … believed review needed to be undertaken by the honor system and the undergraduate Honor Council following some issues that were raised,” Senate Chair Noah Kim ’13 said.
In December 2010, the Honor Council separated itself financially from the SA, arguing that the disciplinary body should be financially supported by a non-political body. Before such legislation, Honor Council reform was contingent on its acceptance of reforms by an Honor Council and SA joint committee.
“In my opinion, that rationale, the basis for that language, is no longer true. I think that the necessary review is being undertaken, and I think that removing this language would be a very important sign of good faith on the part of the Student Assembly to the Honor Council,” Kim said.
A number of Senate members spoke against removing the clause, citing a history of differences between the SA and the Honor Council.
“I know you’ve said change is happening, but to what degree is that happening?” Senator Joe Mehan ’12 said. “I think we should wait on passing this portion of your bill before we see the changes.”
The SA debated and finally passed the Finance Code Renewal Act.
The body also passed the Checks and Balances Act, which adds additional chairmen to the Senate Executive Committee.
“The [current] composition of the executive committee … potentially allows for an unbalanced representation of views,” Kim said.
Currently, the Senate Executive Committee is composed of the Chair of the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate, and a third member appointed by the Senate Chair. The Check and Balance Act added chairs of the Senate committees, Policy, Outreach, Finance, Student Life, and Public Affairs, to the Executive committee.
Finally, Kim introduced the HPV Vaccine Subsidization Act, which would allocate $9,000 to subsidize 200 doses of HPV vaccines for College of William and Mary students.
“The reason behind this bill is that the Student Health Center is currently administering these vaccines at cost … It’s potentially prohibitively expensive,” Kim said.
The SA sent the act to Finance, Student Life, and Outreach committees for further review.
