Tuesday, Oct. 6, the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly heard a presentation from Associate Provost for Institutional Research and Effectiveness Matt Smith and Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Leadership Michael Patterson about alumni graduate outcomes.
The senate also heard from Independent Elections Commission member Marie-Delphine Alberts ’28 about the fall elections, nominated a SA representative to Alma Mater Production’s Spring Concert Committee and considered funding Busch Gardens Day and incentivizing student dorm tours.
Special Business
Smith said the College is actively developing its next strategic plan, focusing on strengthening alumni and graduate outcomes.
Patterson said one metric the College seeks to quantify is the extent to which graduates feel successful after receiving their undergraduate degree.
SA Vice President Sophie Kennedy ’27 asked Patterson how the College measures alumni perspectives about their post-graduate success.
Patterson said the College provides alumni with a survey right after they graduate.
“[The survey results indicate] 96% of William and Mary graduates are in a pathway towards their chosen career,” he said.
Multiple senators told Smith and Paterson they felt many of the College’s leadership and career resources were not advertised as much as they should have been.
Smith acknowledged the senators’ feedback. He said the College aims to improve its communication with students.
“This connects with what we’ve heard from other groups as well,” Smith said. “It’s not just about doing the things that we need to be doing, but also establishing visible communication channels.”
Alberts provided a presentation to the senate about the fall elections on behalf of the IEC.
“We had 16 total candidates on election day with five campaign violations and two campaigns removed,” Alberts said.
Alberts said the IEC experienced challenges with tabulating ranked choice voting due to the number of participating candidates.
Sen. Quinn Clancey ’27 asked Alberts why the IEC removed two candidates.
“Most of the removals for candidates were for not submitting the financial disclosure form,” she said. “We are sympathetic to the circumstances, but that is a firm deadline that was clearly communicated to everyone.”
Senators held a secret ballot to determine which SA representative would sit on AMP’s Spring Concert Committee.
Class of 2028 President Devaughn Henry ’28 and Class of 2029 President Daria Lesmerises ’29 ran for the position. Henry won by a vote of 11 to nine.
Kennedy later said via email that the senate decided to cast a secret ballot because the body historically uses this method when deciding between two nominees or candidates. She pointed to using the secret ballot for the senate chair elections in the past, for example.
New Business
The senate considered the Increasing Funding for Busch Gardens Day Act, sponsored by Clancey, Sen. Danny Otten ’23 Ph.D. ’27 and Sen. Mackenna Wyckoff ’28.
Clancey said the bill would allocate $8,851.45 to address a funding shortfall created by unexpected expenses that came up during the SA-sponsored Busch Gardens Day.
The bill was assigned to the Finance Committee.
The senate also considered The 10th Annual Sankofa Gala Act, sponsored by Henry and Sen. Tyson Liverman ’27.
The bill allocates $9,100.00 to fund a gala in celebration of the College’s Black community.
Wyckoff expressed concern about the cost of the event.
“My concern with this is that this was $6,000 last year, and it’s gone up by $3,000, which is a lot, especially in terms of attendance, which was only 115 last year,” she said.
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Student Unions and Engagement Anne Arseneau ’89 M.A.Ed. ’92 addressed cost concerns about the event.
“The hope is that it wouldn’t be 115 people in attendance, it would be in the 200s so that we reduce the cost per person,” she said.
The bill was assigned to all committees.
Old Business
The senate passed The Room Reveal Rewards Act, sponsored by Lesmerises and Sen. Neha Baskar ’29. The bill will incentivize students to participate in University Marketing dorm tour videos by allocating $350 for Wawa gift cards.
“William and Mary marketing has tried to put this together before, but their biggest pitfall has been finding students to do this,” Lesmerises said.
