Tuesday, Feb. 14, the Student Assembly of the College of William and Mary passed The Dispensers In Common Quarters Act and The Re-Extending Free STI Testing Act Pt. II, and also confirmed Sen. Hazel Vineet ’25 as the executive liaison. Sen. Sophia Tammera ’24 previously served in the executive liaison role before Tuesday’s meeting.
Special Business
The Senate appointed Vineet as the new executive liaison, replacing Tammera, who also serves as Historian of the Senate. According to the SA Code, the executive liaison must attend all cabinet meetings and report on them to the Senate.
Class President Maheen Saeed ’23 nominated Vineet and Sen. Justin Bailey ’24. However, Bailey rejected his nomination due to time commitment conflicts. The Senate then unanimously confirmed Vineet’s nomination.
New Business
Sen. Jiexi Lin ’26 introduced The Give Green a Chance Act, which aims to allocate $550 from SA Reserves to purchase four 96-gallon collection carts with “Compostables Only” stamped on the side from Natural Organic Process Enterprises.
Lin and Sen. Ashlynn Parker ’26 introduced The Collapsible Trash Cans Act, which would fund 6 trash cans, totaling an expenditure of $60 from SA Reserves.
Sen. Sean Nguyen ’25’s The Review of OBAC’s Annual Revisions Act (ROAR) was initially on the agenda but was later removed. The bill would enact several major changes to the Organization Budget Allocation Process, including changing the amount of funding derived from the Student Activities Fee Funds that graduate schools will receive.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, the Senate passed a resolution endorsing a change to the student activity fee allocation model, where 75% of the fee paid by graduate students are allocated to the graduate schools according to their enrollment, as opposed to the current amount of 50%.
The Senate is expected to discuss the bill as part of new business on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
The ROAR Act would enact numerous code changes regarding how OBAC operates. Select changes from pieces of legislation have been applied to the SA code on Feb. 14, after it had remained unchanged from Sep. 13, 2022.
Currently, changes from The Bolstering Ethics of Election Fairness (BEEF) Act, sponsored by Nguyen and Sen. Max Berckmueller ’23, while they have taken effect, have not been applied to the code.
Old Business
The Senate passed The Dispensers In Common Quarters Act, introduced by Nguyen and Sen. Spencer Krivo ’26. The act allocated $650 from SA reserves to purchase three condom dispenser stands and three condom dispensers to be located in the Sadler Center.
Reporting on the evaluations of the bill by the Senate Finance Committee, which voted positive unanimously, Nguyen relayed some comments from members of the committee.
“In regards to the cons, one of our members said, to better encourage safe sex, perhaps we should just avert to abstinence entirely, and so, perhaps, this will not be the way. And then the other suggestion was that, when you put the letters of the bill together, it perhaps spells something inappropriate, so they found it unprofessional,” Nguyen said.
“In regards to the cons, one of our members said, to better encourage safe sex, perhaps we should just avert to abstinence entirely, and so, perhaps, this will not be the way. And then the other suggestion was that, when you put the letters of the bill together, it perhaps spells something inappropriate, so they found it unprofessional.”
Senate Finance committee meeting minutes for Sunday, Feb. 12, available through the College’s website, support Nguyen’s report.
Senators passed the bill unanimously without debate.
The Senate passed The Re-Extending Free STI Testing Act Pt. II, introduced by Class President Mia Tilman ’24. The bill allocated $10,000 from SA reserves to fund STI tests and associated office visits for diagnosing HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea and Syphilis.
Answering Sen. Hashir Aqeel ’25’s questions regarding the breakdown of the usage of the student health fee, Director of Student Leadership Development Anne Arseneau ’89 MA.Ed ’92 gave her thoughts on how the school might utilize the funding.
“My assumption would be, it pays for their staffing to have an on-campus pharmacy, or supplies that support it,” Arseneau said. “It’s funded so your fee is paying to run an on-campus health facility so that most students’ needs can be met at that level, that would be my assumption.”
Senators then passed the bill unanimously.
Also at this week’s meeting:
- SA President John Cho ’23, answering a question from Tilman, said the Williamsburg City Council deferred plans to vote on the College Woods development proposal. In a statement to The Flat Hat, Cho later said the original proposal was voted down zero to six by the planning commission. “At this stage the development is altering the proposal (we believe). And they may or may not bring it to City Council, but no one is really sure. If they do, it would likely be in March or April,” Cho said.
- In compliance with Arts and Sciences graduate Sen. Morgan Brittain’s The Going to the Grads Revival Act, Sen. Brendan Clark J.D. ’24 said a courtroom has been booked for the event. In addition, senators will visit graduate schools and meet with their student and administrative leadership. Clark also announced that a new president of the William and Mary Student Bar Association was elected.
- The session was briefly interrupted when the Senate struggled to hear Brittain, who was connecting virtually via Zoom. Arseneau and Nguyen then fixed the audio issue.
- Class of 2025 dressed in pink to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
