Referendum Results

April 6, 2026 Referendum

The following referendum was posed to the student body by a Student Assembly Senator via a Special Referendum on April 6, 2026. To be presented, the referendum had to be passed by a simple majority in a vote of the Senate. .

Background Information:

All sources, notes, and explanations provided by the petitioner

Student Assembly meeting minutes with discussion on ZeroEyes on March 31^st

Question:

W&M has entered into a 400-camera partnership with the AI surveillance company ZeroEyes for the stated purpose of firearm detection. ZeroEyes has not released data about the accuracy of their system and cannot detect concealed weapons. The current contract grants this private vendor the 'perpetual and irrevocable license' to use collected imagery for its own business operations. Do you support cancelling W&M’s contract with ZeroEyes?

Results:

Yes - 1125 votes
No - 113 votes
Abstain - 18 votes

March 26, 2026 Referenda

The following referenda were posed to the student body via the Student Assembly election on March 26, 2026. Below you will find the information provided by the petitioners as well as the results of each respective referendum.

Referendum #1

Student Assembly received a petition signed by 290 students on March 24th at 5:07 PM. The submitted explanation by the petitioners for the referendum is as follows:

FLOCK Group Inc. (Flock) “is a technology company that creates and operates an extensive surveillance network using automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and related technologies.” This surveillance data is uploaded to Flock’s cloud system, and participating agencies can search and share this database across jurisdictions. Through a series of intentional and unintentional data privacy breaches, Flock has repeatedly shown itself to be an unreliable and unethical company. William & Mary's Police Department (WMPD) currently has a ~$40,000, two-year contract with Flock to have eight Flock Falcon cameras already active on campus and two more on the way.

All sources, notes, and explanations can be found here at this link provided by the petitioner.

Question:

Should William & Mary end its contract with Flock and should administrators publicly retract and apologize for their misleading claims about their use of Flock and our liberties?

Results

Yes - 1480 votes
No - 116 votes
Abstain - 74 votes

Referendum #2

Student Assembly received a petition signed by 255 students on March 25th at 5:17 PM. The submitted explanation by the petitioners for the referendum is as follows:

Under the aim that no one should be punished for peaceful protest; no one should be threatened for exercising free speech; and no one should be deported for speaking out for human rights. With the belief that all students should feel like they belong on their campus and are free to be themselves without being harassed or singled out. We are asking for William & Mary to fight to protect our rights – and refuse to collaborate in the government’s attacks on our campus.

Question:

Should William & Mary

Declare its support for the protection of our civil human rights of all members of our campus community, and take all measures to ensure we may exercise our rights without fear or intimidation
Not share resources, such as staff’s time or data collected on students and faculty, with federal law enforcement who are seeking to violate our social rights or target members of our community.
Employ their authority to establish a firewall for freedom, prohibiting employees from voluntarily providing information or assistance in response to a request from federal authorities or out-of-state authorities that seeks to identify, or impose civil or criminal liability or other penalties, to identify or apprehend a person in order to subject them to immigration detention, removal or deportation proceedings; or to prosecute a person or persons for offenses related to immigration status based on their participation in activities protected by the First Amendment, and to investigate the sex or gender of a student, faculty, or staff member.

Results:

Yes - 1455 votes
No - 79 votes
Abstain - 136 votes