Monday, March 24, College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly presidential candidates, William Henderson ’26 and Zoe Wang ’25 MPP ’26, debated in Commonwealth Auditorium. The debate was in preparation for the SA presidential election this Thursday.
Anthony “AJ” Joseph ’21, 2021 SA president, moderated the debate. The candidates were given four minutes to answer each question and a 30-second rebuttal. The debate began with the candidates’ opening statements.
Wang phrased her campaign as “people-centered and results-driven.” She emphasized some of the tangible outcomes she worked on for students in the past.
“We’ve been able to create the Lavender House, which is William and Mary’s first LGBTQ plus special interest housing, through a lot of hard work and persistence,” Wang said. “And we’ve also been able to get new swings and tables. I’m leading the Period Project. For the last year, I’ve created resource cards for survivors of sexual violence, and just this past Friday, we’ve held a profit share with WMT swap.”
Henderson spoke of creating a campus where everyone feels at home and diversity is celebrated.
“To grow the belief in the power of belonging is not just a message, but it is a foundation, which I base my approach of leadership and service,” Henderson said. “In my journey from serving on executive boards to mentoring young students as an orientation aid, I’ve learned that collective success arises from embracing our differences and supporting each other’s growth.”
Joseph asked the candidates how they plan to advocate for performing arts groups on campus to gain better practice spaces and funding.
Henderson offered solutions such as SA promoting student arts groups, helping with funding, focusing on transparency and increasing communication with the College administration. He also explained that his involvement in a student arts program gives him a unique insight into their obstacles.
“I’m in an a cappella group, and every Wednesday night, at 10 p.m. there is an a cappella performance,” Henderson said. “Recently, if you did not notice, the Wren is under construction, which has prohibited the use of that space. But that space also wasn’t acknowledged. It wasn’t given to us. And so what I would want to do in my position is make sure there’s transparency.”
Wang stressed that under her leadership, SA will advocate for arts groups and communicate their conversations with administration back to students.
“We know that arts organizations are concerned that PBK and the music hall is not accessible to them, especially since these are new buildings, and students should be able to use them,” Wang said. “So when we’re communicating this to admin, we’re going to be persistent, we’re going to work hard and we’re going to make sure that they listen to us.”
When asked about her credentials to lead in the face of pushback from the College’s admin, Wang cited her success with the Period Project and the Lavender House.
“I have a lot of experience when it comes to working with administrators who don’t necessarily listen,” Wang said. “And I’m not saying that all administrators, you know, are nonresponsive. I think some admin are awesome at supporting students, but there are definitely some holes. And you know, students, just like I am, are sometimes frustrated when it comes to communication with admin. So what we hope to do going forward is make sure that this frustration is communicated in further meetings, and also going to their offices physically instead of waiting for them to reply with an email.”
Henderson stated that he is very comfortable engaging in difficult conversations with the College’s higher-ups because of his experience as cabinet secretary. Moving forward, he strives to use data as a tool to work with admin.
“I think in order to do our job very well is making sure we have very sound data behind it,” Henderson said. “I think in this past year in assembly, it’s been a little bit of a challenge to making sure that we have sound data to, you know, fight the administration about things. When there’s an attack on DEI, when there’s an attack on liberal arts education, knowing that there is something tangible, something that I can look at, something like a pie chart, like something that says hundreds of students have said this.”
With online graduate enrollment numbers increasing, Joseph questioned candidates on how to reach them. Henderson described including graduate students in focus groups and appointed SA positions. He also highlighted that graduate students are in a different position than undergraduate students.
“We’ve also consulted with a lot of graduate students and seeing what they want, and we also realize they’re in a different perspective,” Henderson said. “Some of them have full-on families. Some of them are, you know, at later stages of life, so they’re not really having an undergraduate experience. And really recognizing that and seeing ways that we can accommodate to their schedule is something that we really want to do.”
As a graduate student herself, Wang thinks she is uniquely equipped to connect graduate students to SA.
“I went to the law school last week, and as we were talking to them, we noticed that they didn’t even know that Student Assembly existed, and they didn’t know that Student Assembly also represents grad students as well,” Wang said. “So that’s something that we would make clear when it comes to emails, making sure to address both grads and undergrads in emails and in our events as well.”
During her visits with graduate students, Wang found chief among their concerns is parking. She hopes to increase parking spaces on campus and work with the Parking Appeals Committee.
“We want to make sure that this Parking Appeals Committee is reactivated and has graduate students and law students on this committee,” Wang said. “That’s the number one way that we’re going to be able to actually fully address the issue that graduate students are facing, which is not just the availability of parking, but parking enforcement specifically.”
Henderson wants to rectify the parking situation by diversifying the assignment of parking passes and increasing communication.
“We want to make sure that we have that communication with the parking office, with facilities management, with the William and Mary Police, and also Tribe Athletics, that do control some of the parking areas that we use,” Henderson said. “A lot of things are blocked off. A lot of communication is given last minute. It’s given over email, and sometimes the response to illegally parking is a quick tow, and that is very costly and very annoying. So finding out ways to bridge that gap.”
Wang strives to address recognized student organizations’ concerns with the Organization Budget Allocation Process through including people with diverse perspectives on OBAC and pushing for an advanced deadline, which allows student organizations to get feedback from OBAC members on their application before the final submission.
Wang wants to change the dynamic of expecting students to come to SA for help.
“We’re going to make sure that we reply to their emails with detailed responses on why they got denied, but also do more when it comes to helping them understand,” Wang said. “Something that I’ve heard a lot is that our undersecretaries, no one’s going to their office hours. So instead of expecting students to come to us, we want to go to them.”
Henderson’s solution regarding OBAC includes broadening leadership, collaborating with other departments such as the data and finance committees and providing a grace period for applications.
Henderson also describes wanting to help students discover other ways to get funding for their organizations.
“Firstly, letting students know there’s other ways than just go back to get funding,” Henderson said. “The CST has great funding. The Collective has great funding. Alumni channels have great funding. And so there’s a way where maybe the process is a little less, you know, tense and you can still get funding and see some of the great things that come out of the programming that you do for your organization.”
When asked about how she would make college more affordable for students, Wang mentioned collaborating with and promoting existing student organizations.
“What we have on campus as well is organizations like Food for All and the Basic Needs Coalition that’s currently starting,” Wang said. “So we will make sure that we continue working with these organizations to make sure that students who need financial assistance get the help they need.”
Henderson agreed with Wang that he would collaborate with student organizations, and added finding niche information in the College’s emails or website and communicating what they find back to students.
“There are a lot of things that are hidden in weird websites on wm.edu,” Henderson said. “And so bringing those to the forefront through our outreach and there are engagement policies make sure students know of the resources that are offered.”
Wang listed various policies in her closing remarks that she hopes to implement. These policies include providing more halal options in the dining halls, recognizing heritage months on Instagram and in emails, training professors on accessibility, regularly visiting with the SA disability alliance, bringing students to city council, updating the campus map and increasing reading days during finals.
Henderson highlighted the themes of his campaign in his closing remarks, such as inclusivity, respect, diversity, approachability and belonging. He also stressed the need to put students back into SA.
Terra M. Sloane ’25, the current SA President, discussed her hopes for her successor.
“The landscape is changing, certainly of higher education in general,” Sloane said. “And what I hope for the next administration, regardless of who it is, is a tenacity in dealing with those changes and being able to balance what students need from them as representatives.”
