The staff editorial board represents the opinion of The Flat Hat. The Flat Hat remains committed to objective and unbiased reporting. This article is separate from any and all coverage of the Student Assembly elections. The editorial board consists of Ethan Qin ’26, Alexandra Nakamitsu ’26, Mona Garimella ’27, Megan Rudacille ’27 and Sam Belmar ’27.
Thursday, March 27, the College of William and Mary’s student body will vote for the Student Assembly’s next president and vice president. Given the current political climate with federal policy changes affecting public and private institutions, the upcoming administration will need to serve as a trustworthy and reliable advocate for students affected by these issues.
One of higher education’s most urgent areas of uncertainty is federal attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses. With the recent closure of the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University’s DEI offices at Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s D.P.S. ’22 insistence, the next student body president and vice president must take a definitive stance on safeguarding belonging and equal opportunity at the College.
Moreover, the next administration will have to address crucial topics such as student interests in the Williamsburg area, campus accessibility, sustainable practices, the academic experience and student health.
After reviewing both tickets’ websites, conducting in-depth interviews with them and observing the candidate debate, The Flat Hat has chosen to endorse Zoe Wang ’25 MPP ’26 and Matt Swenson ’26 for SA president and vice president.
The Editorial Board admired Wang and Swenson’s familiarity with Student Assembly and its current areas of stagnation. The Editorial Board appreciated the campaign’s realistic and specific policy plans and their willingness to engage with students to adapt their platform accordingly.
While Wang-Swenson’s platform prevailed in most areas, the Editorial Board commends Henderson-Jones’s strong inclusivity platform as a throughline for the ticket’s ideas.
Student Life and Outreach
Wang and Swenson outlined concrete, feasible plans to connect with the student body in pursuit of improving student life. The campaign’s “we will go to you” platform is a productive approach for hearing diverse student concerns. Wang and Swenson plan to visit student councils, such as A Capella Council and the MCO presidents’ council, to ensure an active and productive dialogue with the student body. The campaign also conceptualized an all-presidents’ council or a group chat including leaders of all RSOs to broaden such communication.
Henderson and Jones prioritized approachability as candidates and planned to host town halls and focus groups as a primary means of facilitating communication with students. Henderson and Jones also cited their current involvement with a large number of student organizations as a means of collecting student input. The Flat Hat believes Wang and Swenson’s approach, taking the burden of initiating dialogues off of students and instead bringing their leadership to existing student meetings, will more effectively connect their administration with a diversity of student voices.
Furthermore, Wang and Swenson demonstrated willingness to treat their platform as dynamic and continually learn from students. The candidates have drafted a list of new policy initiatives based on conversations with students during their campaign.
Health and Safety
Both tickets emphasize making strides on key issues such as mental health care, sexual violence awareness and access to menstrual and reproductive products, as well as vaccines. Funding for these resources is a major issue for both candidates, who agree the College should bear the financial burden in the long term, alleviating years-long pressure on the SA’s budget.
However, Wang and Swenson offer specific initiatives on topics like sexual violence awareness, from hosting a Sexual Violence Prevention Week in September to changing SA’s acronym to WMSA to be sensitive toward survivors of sexual assault. Wang and Swenson also aim to continue distributing resource cards with up-to-date information to students.
Wang’s past involvement with the Period Project demonstrates their commitment to and experience with expanding health resource access on a sustainable basis. As class of 2026 president, Wang has championed the continuation of the Period Act and drafted multiple iterations of the legislation throughout her tenure.
On mental health, Henderson and Jones suggested rebranding the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center for more holistic mental health care, which their opponents did not mention. However, Wang and Swenson’s goal of making online appointments more accessible through the Counseling Center would likely have a more immediate effect on mental health outcomes. Henderson and Jones’ heavy focus on destigmatization events is slightly less definitive in terms of student impact.
Henderson and Jones’ long-term goal of modernizing and expanding programming at the Bee McLeod Recreation Center is a commendable proposition, but would be difficult to accomplish within their one-year term. SA may also be limited in its ability to enact these sweeping changes.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Henderson and Jones maintain inclusivity as a central theme in each aspect of their campaign, and Henderson’s work as Secretary of Diversity and Inclusion in the Sloane-Lazo cabinet also demonstrates that commitment. Wang and Swenson affirmed that their administration would utilize SA as an organizing force to support student voices against attacks on DEI. While Wang and Swenson maintain a commitment to diversity, their campaign lacks specificity as to what plans they have to preserve diversity initiatives aside from conversations and general support.
By contrast, Henderson and Jones describe DEI work as continuous and necessitating a consistent push for inclusivity in all spaces on campus. In the face of government interference, the ticket emphasized preserving the Center of Student Diversity’s resources through alternative entities such as the Wellness Center or the Student Leadership Development office. Henderson and Jones also seek to use their alumni connections with Henderson’s work as President of Student University Advancement and Jones’s work in endowments to leverage alumni to defend DEI. Both tickets expressed a necessity to have difficult conversations with administration and maintain inclusivity and diversity on the College’s campus, which was valuable.
If elected, the Editorial Board urges a Wang-Swenson administration to work with Henderson and Jones to incorporate portions of their DEI strategies in their work. The Editorial Board urges collaboration with administrators, faculty and the Board of Visitors to safeguard programs that encourage belonging and equal opportunity.
Accessibility
The Flat Hat was impressed by Wang and Swenson’s commitment to partnering with Student Accessibility and Disability Alliance to create forums for students to directly discuss issues with accessibility on campus. Beyond this, Wang and Swenson strive to mandate accessibility training for all faculty and staff, as well as create a students’ rights card for disability policy similar to the “Know Your Rights” pamphlet.
If elected, the Editorial Board encourages Wang and Swenson to expand their definition of accessibility to include overlooked needs.
Williamsburg
Similar to last year, student interests in the Williamsburg area remain an important issue, including student housing, police enforcement concerns and student engagement with the Williamsburg City Council.
Securing on-campus housing has become difficult in recent years with the College’s construction of new dorms and growing admissions numbers. Off campus, many students struggle to find affordable housing and often face poor living conditions. Williamsburg’s three-person rule pressures many student cohorts to have “ghost tenants,” or individuals that live in a residence and contribute to rent despite not being on the lease.
The Flat Hat believes that Wang’s experience facilitating off-campus housing panels and Swenson’s work with community leaders on the Social Services Advisory Board gives their ticket the advantage in advocating for more accessible student housing. Wang and Swenson also outlined tangible action steps like working with the Williamsburg Planning Commission, expanding exceptions to the three-person rule and promoting the Rent Ready program.
Student interactions with Williamsburg police, and especially noise ordinances at social gatherings, have been another point of contention. Wang and Swenson outlined reshaping SA’s communication with the police to alleviate current stagnation and promote more transparency. Their ticket also discussed the importance of bringing students to Williamsburg City Council meetings to advocate for their interests, such as these issues with housing and police interactions.
Sustainability
The Flat Hat was impressed by Wang and Swenson’s robust plan for promoting sustainability on campus and in the surrounding Williamsburg community. Their plan to leverage the Year of the Environment to make lasting reform is both well-thought-out and substantive. Their policy ideas include installing a permanent sustainability staff at the administrative level and revitalizing the conversation to make the College’s campus carbon neutral by 2030.
Wang and Swenson’s past work on SA as class senators gives them the relevant experience to promote realistic policy for a challenge as daunting as the climate crisis. Wang championed meaningful change at the local level, such as subsidizing sustainable menstrual products and promoting environmental stewardship through funding long-lasting outdoor furniture.
Furthermore, their plan to support the sustainability initiatives promoted by recognized student organizations will empower the campus as a whole to push for a more sustainable campus community.
Though Henderson and Jones outline several policy ideas for making our campus more sustainable, we are more confident in Wang and Swenson’s ability to deliver on their promises. Though Henderson and Jones’ platform was impressive, parts of their plan, such as ensuring sustainable construction and reducing construction over time, seemed unfeasible given the limited power of the head of a student government.
Academics
Both campaigns present distinct visions for reforming academic life through Student Assembly. Wang and Swenson target specific policy changes, such as adding more reading days to the final exam period and addressing student concerns about registration. Henderson and Jones envision a broader restructuring of SA’s Department of Academic Affairs, establishing the Department of Academic Experience, which they feel is necessary to represent all facets of student life and build connections with the new School of Computing and Data Sciences and Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences.
Both tickets aim to protect the College’s liberal arts character in the face of mounting criticism over its value. Wang and Swenson emphasized the liberal arts as crucial to achieving national preeminence as an institution and criticized the pre-professional segmentation of education.
While both agendas have their strengths, Wang and Swenson enumerate more actionable steps that could be reasonably implemented within the next year through SA. Henderson and Jones’ plans for larger academic reforms are admirable but less tangible in terms of actionability.
Wang and Swenson’s syllabi reforms, including publication on PATH and data on female representation in course readings, are more concrete examples of changes to academic life. Henderson and Jones’ broader calls for interdisciplinary collaboration and connection to newer schools are certainly important but lack specificity and could be hard to translate into action.
Data & Finance
The Flat Hat appreciates Henderson and Jones’ data collection policy. Their campaign prioritized creative data collection as a means of expressing student interests to the administration with increased legitimacy. They also emphasized the limits of Student Assembly’s current Omnibus survey, which Wang and Swenson cited as their main plan for data collection.
Both campaigns outlined similar plans to reform the Organization Budget Allocation Committee. Both discussed diversifying and expanding OBAC’s membership, increasing operational transparency and adding a grace period for advanced review of budgets so organizations can make changes to circumvent budget rejection.
Henderson and Jones did include the added provision of posting instructional videos on social media to guide organizations through the OBAC process. On the other hand, Wang and Swenson asserted that diversifying OBAC will be enough to ensure widespread knowledge of the process throughout the student body. The Flat Hat believes Henderson and Jones’s plan will more effectively improve RSO’s experience with the budget allocation process.
The Editorial Board encourages Wang and Swenson, if elected, to work with Henderson and Jones to incorporate aspects of their comprehensive data and finance strategies.
Graduate Students
Graduate students represent a significant portion of the College’s community, and in many cases their needs differ vastly from the undergraduate student body. Both platforms offered sound policies regarding graduate student representation in SA event planning and university boards.
The Flat Hat appreciated the specificity of the Wang-Swenson ticket’s initiatives, including advocating for faculty and staff parking passes for graduate student teaching assistants. Furthermore, Wang and Swenson proposed the creation of a graduate student teaching award that recognizes excellence in teaching for graduate students.
Effectiveness
In conversations with both candidates, the Editorial Board asked how they would work to make their cabinet efficient and ensure that they deliver on their policy goals.
Henderson and Jones uniquely outlined a more internal approach, including reforms to the cabinet that the Editorial Board believes will deliver meaningful results to make SA more effective. If elected, we hope that Wang and Swenson can take these ideas to make both external and internal changes.
Looking Ahead
The Editorial Board encourages undergraduate and graduate students to review candidate platforms and vote Thursday, March 27, before 8:00 p.m. via TribeLink or the voting link sent to students’ emails.
