Elections Committee

Applicants for this year’s Elections Committee (EC) presented themselves at Senate this week. They gave brief statements of interest before Senators and Cabinet members voted for three EC members, two senators and one student at large. EC oversees College Government elections, ensuring the elections are fair and abide by the rules. While waiting for Senators and Cabinet to vote, attendees shared stories about acts of kindness, inspired by this week’s theme, “Treat People With Kindness.” 49 Senators and Cabinet members voted, and this year’s EC will consist of Georgia Moskiou ’24, Avery Lumeng ’21 and Alexandra Brooks ’23. Statements of intent to run for a College Government cabinet position are due this Thursday, Mar. 11. 

Divestment Ballot Question

Senate voted this week on whether to include a question on the College Government election ballot about fossil fuel divestment and carbon-cutting measures. Cricket Liebermann ’23 gave a statement explaining the purpose of this ballot question, which would be to signal to the Board of Trustees that Wellesley students are committed to divestment and sustainability. Before the vote was taken, students of ECON/ES 199 answered questions from Wellesley Democrats Senator Jailene Lemus ’21, Stone-Davis Senator Alex Asack ’24 and Al-Muslimat Senator Fayza Jaleel ’24 regarding the specific language of the question on the ballot and how the carbon-cutting measures would accommodate disabled students. 49 votes were counted, with 88 percent in favor of the question being on the College Government election ballot, 10 percent opposed and 2 percent abstaining. 

SOFC Funding

Student Bursar Alexis Rivett ’21 gave a short presentation on how to allocate extra SOFC funds to students. Since these extra funds would have gone towards events that can no longer be held due to COVID restrictions, SOFC proposed that the funds be instead available for distribution to any students or organizations that wish to hold events or otherwise do campus-wide projects, such as improving campus spaces. Any student will be able to apply with an event or project description, their budget and an explanation of logistics. A request of under $1,000 would be reviewed by SOFC only, and a request of over $1,000 would be reviewed by both SOFC and Senate. These applications would be available for the Spring 2021 semester only. Any events held in-person would need to be approved for COVID safety, and anything transforming specific spaces would also need approval from the necessary authorities. Senate will be voting on this proposal next week.