Tuesday’s senate meeting was centered on an activities and events request made by WCWM, the College of William and Mary’s student radio station.
This Saturday, WCWM will host WCWM Fest, an all-day festival featuring music, art and comedy. The group requested a total of $8,434.60 from the SA after having already raised $9,800 in funding through the Media Council and local business sponsorships.
Outgoing sen. and SA President-elect Colin Danly ’15 raised concerns about funding the request when he announced that the activities and events fund contained $8,905 and there are more activities and events requests that have yet to be reviewed. Therefore, funding the entire request would greatly deplete the account and affect funding of future requests.
“We kind of just got this in through some kind of bureaucratic technicalities. So we have to make a decision,” Danly said. “I think we should not fund all of it. I really think that would be not the best use of our money at this point. But I do think we can match the publications council at $5,000.”
Senators debated and decided it would be best to fund at least some portion of the request. The senate chose to fund $5,334.60 for the WCWM Fest request, which would allow them to pay for the essentials needed for the concert, like a stage and sound system.
Later in the meeting, WCWM Station Manager JohnAugust Bridgeford ’15 made an appeal to senate to receive more funding than the $5,334.60 the senate had approved.
Bridgeford emphasized the importance of WCWM Fest as a community experience.
“We’re hoping that not only are students going to learn what WCWM has to offer, but also looking at some of the newer clubs, and also kind of encouraging students to look at these clubs as a means of coming together. … WCWM Fest is a great way to build these inter-club relationships, which we think are really powerful on campus,” Bridgeford said.
After hearing Bridgeford’s appeal and asking questions, sen. Daniel Ackerman ’16 proposed increasing the SA’s funding of the event to $6,000. The Senate subsequently reevaluated their original allocation and increased it to $6,000 per Ackerman’s suggestion by unanimous consent.
Danly introduced the Game of Thrones Act during new business in Tuesday’s meeting. The bill reallocated money from the competition fund to the activities and events fund to accommodate the anticipated activities and events requests. Danly motioned to move the bill to old business so that the money could be reallocated in enough time to fund other pending activities and events requests.
Sen. Chase Jordan ’15 initially opposed the proposal to move the bill from old to new business, as he believed the Senate was forgoing the committee process too often.
“I feel we made an exception last week and we made an exception two weeks before that and it’s becoming a trend,” Jordan said.
However, other senators vocalized their support of moving the Game of Thrones Act to old business. Sen. Yohance Whitaker ’16 expressed his support of the bill as a necessary measure to support student organizations.
“We have been really productive this year and that’s a good thing … with that it gets more expensive,” Whitaker said. “I think this is a necessary step that we have to take if we want to continue the higher-level success rates that we have had with other bills. Without this, we can’t meet the student need, which we are all put in this spot to provide.”
Jordan chose to remove his opposition and the Game of Thrones Act was moved to old business discussing the WCWM Fest appeal. After discussion, senators decided to reallocate a total of $6,000 from the competition fund to the activities and events fund. The bill was approved by unanimous consent.
The Department of Transportation Change Act, sponsored by sen. Gabriel Morey ’16, was passed unanimously during Tuesday’s meeting. The bill allows the SA president to appoint or remove an undersecretary of transportation as seen fit.
Morey also introduced the Gender-Neutral Constitution Act during new business. The proposed bill changes all the masculine pronouns currently in the SA’s code to read “he or she.”
Secretary of Diversity Dylan Frendt ’14, who was in attendance at the meeting, advised that the language should read “they” to respect those who do not identify as male or female.
“You have it as ‘he and she;’ the language should be ‘they.’ ‘He or she’ is disparaging toward those who do not identify with either gender,” Frendt said.
Chairman of the senate Will McConnell ’14 assigned the Gender-Neutral Constitution Act to the policy and executive committees.
