Club Connection Act
The Club Connection Act, sponsored by Senators Sarah Rojas (’10) and Brittany Fallon (’11), was passed with unanimous consent. The Act was created to build a bridge between the Senate Assembly, students, and student organizations.
It charges the Outreach committee with building this bridge by contacting all student organizations via email at the start of each semester and once during the budgeting period. It also suggests that the committee send a Senator to attend a meeting of any organization that requests one.
According to Senator Fallon, if an organization did request a senator, the Outreach Committee would work with the Senate chair to decide whom to send. Outreach would then suggest to the Senator that he or she attend the meeting.
Not only would student organizations have the potential to be better represented by the SA in general, they could more quickly and easily acquire funds, according to the bill’s sponsors. The senators would advocate directly for an organization’s needs, instead of the organization going through the long process of requesting funds.
The authors also said that the Act would create better PR for the SA. The bill itself acknowledged that the “Student Assembly exists to work for students” but the “disconnect between the students and the Student Assembly” that has become a major concern of late.
Senator Matt Beato (’09) said that, while demand for Senators at club meetings might not be very high, “I think the demand we do get will help us a lot.”
Outdoor Recycling Containers Act
The Outdoor Recycling Containers Act, which will place 13 new recycling receptacles on campus, was passed 19/3.
While the program itself received wide approval, the Act sparked disagreement among the Senators about whether it was right or fair for the SA to fund the program by itself. According to various SA members, the administration has refused to help fund it.
The student environmental group SEAC and the service fraternity APO will empty the receptacles, just as they currently empty the ones located in academic buildings. The new receptacles would be placed around the Sunken Gardens, the UC terrace, the Campus Center, and the Undergraduate Admissions office.
The bill, as amended in the meeting, provided $7,034 for the 13 new receptacles.
“Recycling bins are crazy expensive,” said Senator Fallon, who sponsored the bill with Senator Ben Brown (’09). The individual units are $518 each.
Senator Brown said the type of receptacle “has to be the heavy-duty metal kind that are rather expensive” but would “last a lifetime.”
Senator Matt Pinsker (’09) argued that students already have to pay “green fees” at the beginning of the year and questioned why those weren’t being used to cover the new recycling program.
“From what I understand, they’re applying those funds to other purposes,” said Senator Brown.
“We should all chip in toward the green thing… it’s a good thing to do,” said Senator Michael Douglass (’11). “It directly benefits all of us.”
Ryan Ruzic, a representative from the Law School, suggested that the SA take advantage of the fact that it was the sole source of funding for the program by advertising itself on each receptacle. This idea was not included in the bill before it passed.
New Bills: Student-Police Tailgate, Funding for Campus Kitchens, Honor Council Referendum
One new bill presented before the Senate Assembly was the Student Police Tailgate Act. This Act would fund a tailgate to be shared by William and Mary police and students this Saturday, November 15th.
The date of the tailgate confused some members of the Senate, as there is no home football game this weekend. Vice President Kristin Slawter (’09) suggested the event just be called a barbeque.
Nonetheless, the bill was not voted on as it was categorized in “new business.”
Another new bill presented was the Campus Kitchens Supplementary Funding Act, which would allocate $1545.64 from Consolidated Reserves to the Campus Kitchens of William and Mary.
Campus Kitchens is a student organization dedicated to alleviating hunger in Williamsburg by providing meals to people in need and researching the root causes of poverty. A representative from Campus Kitchens spoke before the SA about the importance of the extra funding.
Two bills added to the agenda during the meeting were the Help Haul Hindi Here Act, which would provide funds to add a Hindi language class at the College and The Honor Council Fair and Transparent Elections Act, which seeks to make Honor council elections more “fair and transparent” in light of a recent Honor Council referendum that had low student turnout.