Correction Appended
The Undergraduate Senate failed to put a referendum on the ballot that would have asked students if they supported increasing student activity fees to support the Clean Energy Revolving Fund.
The proposed referendum would appear on the spring 2010 ballot and would ask: “Do you support increasing student fees by $10.00 for one academic year to the Clean Energy Revolving Fund?”
CERF is a program created by the SG in an effort to make AU more carbon-neutral. Under the program, donations would be made to purchase renewable energy products such as solar panels or wind turbines. The energy costs saved by the renewable energy would be put back into CERF to support further projects, The Eagle previously reported.
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Brett Atanasio, senator for the class of 2013, wrote and proposed the bill with the purpose to “re-gauge the students’ feelings on funding for green energy and especially CERF,” he said. “We should find out how students felt about it. I didn’t think it was appropriate to make any decisions like that without asking them personally.”
In the wake of the failed referendum, Antanasio and supporters are trying to petition the referendum onto the ballot.
There are two ways to get a referendum onto a ballot: two-thirds of the Senate can vote for it to be placed, or 10 percent of the undergraduate population can petition for the referendum.
Antanasio’s petition garnered 761 signatures. The petition must be submitted to Student Activities for the names to be checked for legitimacy.
Forrest Young, senator of the class of 2012, opposes the referendum.
“[The] referendum [is] about raising a $10 fee on top of the student activity fees that students currently pay,” he said. “Activity fees are for programming and for clubs and organizations. It’s not to support free initiatives.”
Some senators hope CERF will become more independent of the SG in the future.
“We’ve done enough,” Young said. “We’ve said that we support CERF. We’ve done as much as we can for them. I’m wondering when is it their turn to do what they told us they would do.”
SG President Andy MacCracken supports putting the question on the ballot.
“There are issues that are too big for the Undergraduate Senate to decide,” he said. “I would like to see what the students say before anyone potentially raises their student activity fees.”
Steve Dalton, senator of the class of 2010, also opposes the referendum.
“People should be able to donate to CERF if they want to,” he said. “Should all students be forced to contribute to CERF? I say no. I say it should be voluntary. “
The CERF legislation says all funds are to be voluntary donations. However, CERF needs to raise at least 100,00 dollars to become self-sufficient, according to MacCracken.
CERF, though created by the SG, is a separate entity from the organization.
Young believes it should be treated and funded separately from SG.
“Clubs are under-funded right now,” he said. “So, if we start raising fees for other organizations that aren’t SG-related, I think all the clubs that are SG-related are going to be like, ‘Hey, you’ll raise a 10 dollar fee for a club that isn’t SG-related but you won’t raise fees for us?’”
The largest obstacle facing the CERF debate and the referendum is the administration itself, Atanasio said. Both Atanasio and Young cited a similar referendum in 2006 that found 71 percent of AU’s student body supported increased fees to support green energy. No policies or additional fees were ever adopted from the referendum.
Young said that despite the debate, the administration is free to act however it sees fit.
“When it comes right down to it, [the SG advocates] for policy,” he said. “For the policy to change, it has to be an administration decision to do this.”
Atanasio agreed on this subject.
“Only time can tell what is going to happen with CERF,” he said. “Quite honestly the SG can yell and scream until we’re blue in the face about raising student fees. Even if 100 percent of the student body said they wanted activity fees raised for CERF ... the administration can still say no. There are no guarantees. Only time will tell.”
You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
Correction: In this article, The Eagle incorrectly stated that Steve Dalton is a senator from the class of 2012. In fact, Dalton represents the class of 2010. This version has been corrected.
