Monday, March 23, the College of William and Mary Student Assembly presidential and vice presidential candidates Nico Giro-Martin ’27 and Sophie Kennedy ’27 spoke at a town hall event in the Commonwealth Auditorium, located in the Sadler Center. The candidates took questions prepared by a moderator and from the audience, speaking about their experience, campaign and goals.
Giro-Martin has served as the class of 2027 president for three years. Kennedy was formerly a senator for the class of 2027 and is now an undersecretary for Health and Safety.
The event was initially scheduled as a debate between opposing candidates. However, since Giro-Martin and Kennedy are running uncontested, the event transitioned to a town hall-style forum.
Elif Erdoğan ’27, the campaign’s chief of staff, spoke to the importance of holding such an event despite the lack of electoral competition.
“I think it’s always good to have a space where students can voice their concerns and bring up questions even if an election is uncontested,” she said. “Having an open forum for students to be able to come and talk is really, really important.”
The candidates were first asked about their day-one goals if elected.
“I think the goal of day one is building up our team, working on filling up our cabinet,” Giro-Martin said. “Ensure that we have a good team to work on the policies that we’ve outlined on our website and throughout our campaign.”
Kennedy emphasized working for the people.
“We’re trying really hard to listen to the student body,” she said. “We’ve been meeting with a lot of registered student organizations already, and we wanted to take all their feedback into consideration and hopefully start implementing those as soon as possible.”
Next, the candidates were asked about the strengths and weaknesses of the current administration.
Kennedy praised SA’s finance department.
“We’ve been funding more organizations than ever in the past before, which I think is really special,” she said. “We want to continue 100% to make sure that our student organizations are getting the funding that they need.”
Giro-Martin echoed this sentiment.
“I know sometimes students can feel frustrated that student government isn’t doing exactly what they want,” Giro-Martin said. “A major part of our campaign is ensuring that there’s a [clear] communication, that we’re speaking to everyone and making it clear the decisions we make, making it clear why things happen and when they happen.”
Kennedy also noted a desire to increase collaboration between the cabinet and the senate.
“As someone who’s worked on both ends, I think that sometimes they can feel like there’s a disconnect, and making sure that senators can work with specific departments and vice versa is something that we can absolutely work on,” she said.
An audience member then asked Giro-Martin and Kennedy about their opinions on the artificial intelligence-based surveillance infrastructure that the College and City of Williamsburg have sought to implement. These include systems such as Flock and ZeroEyes.
“For a lot of students, where their data goes, and if their information is being sent and surveillance specifically is very scary. And I completely understand that,” Kennedy said. “I think that it’s good that students are speaking to what’s going on on campus and advocating for what they believe in, and I think it’s important that we listen to students.”
Giro-Martin said he hopes to help advocate for student concerns while effectively relaying administrative choices.
“I also think there’s an important factor in understanding that the [College] has also had its own goals, and some things don’t align with what the students want,” he said.
Further reflecting on policy goals, the candidates articulated their administration’s primary goals.
Giro-Martin highlighted pedestrian safety.
“In the past, I’ve worked with the City to get a crosswalk built on Jamestown Road, right by Lemon Hall, so the Student Assembly helped pay for the crosswalk,” he said. “I think the next steps and working with our Health and Safety department, our Department of Outreach, is working on an educational campaign on pedestrian safety, on bike safety.”
Kennedy emphasized the pair’s accessibility initiative.
“We have a lot of construction on campus, but [we want to make] sure that students feel like they’re able to get where they want to go in an accessible manner,” she said.
The candidates also discussed their plan to handle political activity and conflicts on campus, prioritizing safety, student rights and civil discourse.
“I think that it’s really important that students know their free speech is protected and they won’t be targeted based off of their political views,” Kennedy said. “I think working with WMPD is a big part of that, to make sure that students know that they aren’t really targeted for any of those reasons.”
Kennedy proposed holding open forums with the William and Mary Police Department to ensure students feel safe on campus.
“I think the biggest thing, especially with the William and Mary administration, is that they care for all of our safety,” Giro-Martin said. “Ensuring that any kind of political event that stays on campus is monitored for safety also ensures that students feel like there’s a space that they can speak freely.”
Kennedy also noted the importance of protecting international students and others with special immigration status.
“Working with the administration to find the best way to do that is something that is absolutely high-priority as well,” she said “That’s something that’s very scary during this time, and we want to find a way to best make sure that we are supporting our international students.”
After the forum, the candidates reaffirmed their commitment to open communication, transparency and listening to student voices.
“We are accessible,” Giro-Martin said. “We want to allow you guys to come to us, to contact us. We want there to be multiple forms of not only contacting us, but other members of our cabinet, so that your inquiries are directed to the person that can best assist you.”
Kennedy said the town hall format allows students to feel more connected to their leaders.
“Knowing that Nico and I are very comfortable talking to people, we’re comfortable talking to a crowd, we’re comfortable taking questions,” she said. “We want to talk to the students. We want them to know what we’re working on, and we want to build off of what they tell us. So it’s not only us looking at the students, but having a conversation with them to make sure that we are best suiting their goals.”
