Tuesday, April 15, the 333rd session of the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly officially commenced. The inaugural meeting consisted of electing the historian, chair and secretary of the Student Assembly Senate and the introduction of two new bills.
Special Business: 333rd Session
To open the 333rd session, the senate passed a special bill called “The Closing of the 332nd Session Act” by unanimous consent. This was intended to be done during the prior week’s meeting, so a motion to suspend the rules was passed. The bill closed the 332nd session, passing over any ongoing initiatives to the new session.
The senate also elected a new historian, secretary and Chair of the Senate. The historian keeps track of changes to the Constitution of the SA. The secretary takes meeting minutes, attendance and tracks voting. The Chair is in charge of the senate and runs the weekly meetings.
By secret ballot, senators voted for each position. The new Chair of the senate is Sen. Mayer Tawfik ’27, the secretary is Sen. Nina Argel ’28 and the historian is Sen. Quinn Clancey ’27.
W&M Dining Update
Aramark Resident District Manager Adam Poling provided an update to the chamber on dining at the College. Poling delivers a presentation to SA once a semester.
The new West Woods dining complex will increase seating capacity by 900. In collaboration with Grubhub, Poling hopes to implement an order-ahead system at the new stations.
Poling shared that the College was ranked among the top 100 allergy-friendly schools, also receiving an A+ rating from PETA for having a diverse range of vegan options. Poling emphasized his desire to expand halal, kosher, vegan and vegetarian options across campus.
New Business
The Codifying “Going to the Grads” Act
Graduate Arts and Sciences Sen. Morgan J. Brittain proposed codifying the “Going to the Grads” Act. The bill aims to amend the SA Constitution to host at least one senate meeting per semester in each of the graduate schools. This includes the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Arts and Sciences, Computing, Data Sciences and Physics, the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, the School of Education and the Law School.
The bill aims to increase graduate school visibility and representation at the College.
“Graduate schools have, collectively, more than 2800 students, all of whom are represented under the umbrella of Student Assembly, who make up approximately twenty-nine percent of our student population, most of whom pay the student activity fees the Student Assembly is entrusted to steward,” the bill states.
Although the Going to the Grads Act has been enacted in the past, the revised bill codifies the action in the SA Constitution, ensuring that the rotation of meeting locations happens every year.
The Voting Procedure Reform Act
Brittain also introduced the Voting Procedure Reform Act. If passed, the bill would require senators to vote in alphabetical order by last name, as opposed to social class order.
Brittain argued that the proposed method would help reduce “cluster voting,” where senators vote based on the majority opinion of their class. The bill cites that most senators vote unanimously by class on the majority of bills.
During a brief period of debate, Class President Nico Giro-Martin ’27 defended voting by seniority of class, arguing that seniors voting first helps younger senators learn the chamber’s procedures.
“I’m still going to make my own decisions,” Giro-Martin said. “I’m not going to base it off someone else. I think having them (seniors) go first kind of sets a tone.”
Executive Updates
SA President Zoe Wang ’25 MPP ’26 and SA Vice President Matt Swenson ’26 gave their first executive updates of their administration. Wang and Swenson are currently reviewing cabinet applications and will swear in their new cabinet at the Tuesday, April 22 senate meeting.
Comments from the Public
A student representing the Students for Sustainable and Reliable Transit appeared before the chamber to advocate for extended bus service across Williamsburg. The student made the senate aware of a campus-wide petition to bring back late-night bus service to the College, which currently has 264 signatures.
Sen. Tyson Liverman ’27 made a public comment asking Swenson and Wang why the name for the SA Google Drive had been renamed to WMSA, as in previous years it had been referred to as SA. Swenson said that the Wang administration would like to start unofficially adopting the acronym WMSA. The move is a part of their campaign platform in an effort to be sensitive to survivors of sexual assault or violence. Swenson responded that the acronym represents the full name, William and Mary Student Assembly, which he claimed was the full name of SA. However, almost all references to SA across the College, including official legislative and executive documents, refer to SA as the Student Assembly of William and Mary. According to the SA Constitution, the full name of the College’s governing body is The Student Assembly of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
