Tuesday, Oct. 12, the College of William and Mary’s 329th Student Assembly Senate discussed two new bills and unanimously passed bills promoting upcoming flu shot clinics and funding campus wellness initiatives.
The Adieu to the Flu Act, sponsored by Sen. Sailor Miao ’24 and Sen. Eugene Lee ’23, allocates $45 from SA Reserves for the printing of colored flyers to advertise upcoming opportunities for students to receive free flu shots on campus. The flyers will publicize that the Student Health Center has free flu shots available for students under the school health insurance plan, while the College is also offering free flu shot clinics for students not on this plan at Kaplan Arena Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 from 9am to 3pm. The act also charges the Outreach Department with designing posters and social media graphics to promote these opportunities.
“I think it’s really important to advertise like this, because there are so many people that don’t get flu shots,” Sen. Jahnavi Prabhala ’22 said. “It’s good that we’re funding this, but utilization may be low if we don’t advertise it properly.”
The senate also passed the Wellness Initiatives Funding Act, sponsored by Senate Chair Owen Williams ’23, which allocates up to $650 for financing wellness initiatives through the rest of the academic year. This money will go towards initiatives including the campus garden plot and a planned pumpkin carving event.
Class of 2022 President Suhas Suddala ’22 later introduced the Everybody Loves Outreach Act. The bill allocates $134 for stickers, posters and flyers to be distributed throughout campus that promote Student Assembly. The bill also calls for at least one member of each class to help put up the promotional material across campus.
At the start of the meeting, Williams used his power as Senate Chair to bring back the ability of senators to knock on the table in support of other senator’s speeches. This tradition first started two years ago, but was abrogated during the COVID-19 pandemic when SA meetings were over Zoom. Williams asserted that this reversal back to knocking was due to the requests of some senators who had served before the pandemic and wanted to bring it back.
Also at this week’s meeting:
- Class of 2024 President Vicka Heidt ’24 introduced the Pronoun Pin Part 2 Act, which would use $275 from SA Reserves to fund the creation and restocking of pronoun pins, which have been handed out at SA-sponsored events since last session.
