The Undergraduate Student Association Elections Committee announced on March 22 that the Student Association's mandatory student activity fee referendum passed and will increase from $85 to $100 per semester for the next two years.
The referendum passed by a margin of 1,433 to 149, and the increase passed 1,232 to 251.
The vote was held March 8 – 10 and also yielded the 2011-2012 Student Association Executive Board and class officers. "I think it went very smoothly this year. There were no huge incidents, which is always a good thing, and I think it was run well," said senior Mary Bock, SA director of inter-residence affairs.
"I think they're going to do great," Bock said. "There are always new ideas coming to the table and when you have all new members coming in … there are new ways of dealing with things, new programs … fresh ideas, which are always good."
Junior Lindsey Hebell, who was elected to the position of SA director of public relations, said she is excited to be working with the incoming executive board, and has already worked with SA President-elect Nicholas Spengler, a junior, and SA Director of Student Programming-elect Heather Bristol, a junior, on Activities Commission.
"I already kind of know how they work," she said. "We actually have already bounced ideas off of each other … We're already having an executive meeting to talk about things for next year, so we're really getting on the ball about it and trying to be proactive."
"I thought [the election] was a really good turnout," said USAEC Chair Robert Terreri, a freshman. "The referendum passed by a lot, and that was the most important thing first and foremost … ensuring that the incoming officers would have something to work with."
For next year's election, Terreri said he would like to revise how USAEC handles campaigning during the voting process. "Right now, people can campaign for themselves, but they can't campaign at all on the Internet, including Facebook," he said. "I think the only thing that should be moderated as far as the Internet goes is the use of list-servs, because … it could create an unfair advantage if [a candidate is] a list-serv moderator." Tererri also said he would like to look into allowing students to campaign on Facebook.