The Student Association is holding its annual Senate elections and bi-annual Referendum Vote this week. The referendum asks students two questions: whether they want to keep paying the Mandatory Student Activity fee –– currently $104.75 –– and if they support a $4.75 fee increase.
Voting is located in the Student Union Theater from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday. Four hundred thirty-four students have voted in the election, as of Wednesday at 5 p.m., according to SA entertainment coordinator Marc Rosenblitt. The Spectrum will provide an update Thursday at 5 p.m. after voting concludes. If the fee increase passes, SA President Gunnar Haberl said it will help SA improve the quality of events for students.
Students will also elect SA senators this week. The Senate is in charge of approving and maintaining SA’s budget and recognizes and derecognizes clubs. It needs 12 senators to fully function, but this year only nine students are running for election.
As long as each student gets one vote, they’ll all be elected, Haberl said. To fill the remaining three positions, Haberl will appoint three students to fill the positions.
Haberl said he’s disappointed that out of the 19,000 undergraduate students at UB, only nine wanted to get involved with student government as senators. He said the fact that there aren’t enough senators isn’t an issue since he’ll end up filling the positions, but he does think the lack of interest in student government is worrisome.
“I would have liked to see more students wanting to get involved with the senate,” Haberl said. “I think it’s important, especially with elected leadership positions that people actually run for them. There is that disappointment that after advertising the election all over our social media and my student-wide emails, only nine people stepped up to the plate out of the whole undergraduate student body.”
Rodney Payamps, a senior political science and history major, is one of nine students running for senator. He agreed with Haberl and said there’s a lack of participation in student government on campus. Even though SA posted about the election on its social media, Payamps said not enough students follow SA or check their emails to find out about elections.
“I think the lack of student interest pretty much stems from how unaware students are of the actual elections and that they can actually become senators and be involved in the whole SA process,” Payamps said. “Most people think it’s only possible to get involved through clubs, but the reality is that you can be working behind the scenes at SA and have a way bigger impact.”
Many students said they didn’t know about the election or referendum, but feel it has an impact on students.
Edwin Chiu, a junior computer science major, said if his club wasn’t volunteering to help register students, he would have had no idea about the senate elections or referendum. He thinks SA needs to be more visible on campus and find a better way to get students engaged.
“This is a school issue so if you want to make changes in the community you should step up and vote,” Chiu said. “Especially if you complain about fees being too high or something not being what you expected, if you’re not voting, you’re the issue too.”
The other items on the ballot –– keeping the mandatory student activity fee and supporting its raise –– will likely both get approved, Haberl said. Every referendum in SA history has kept the fee mandatory, according to Haberl.
SA last increased the fee in 2014 when it was raised from $94.75 to its current amount.
Haberl said he hopes for a large voter turnout. He said it’s important for students to know that their money is going toward more than just big-ticket events like Fall and Spring Fest or the Comedy Series.
“Students truly have a voice on whether or not the mandatory student activity fee should be mandatory,” Haberl said. “Because we’re such a large university, I think students associate the SA with one thing that’s most important to them, they don’t realize everything SA does. There’s so much that we do that students may take for granted. Our clubs wouldn’t exist without passing the referendum. Going to college is much more than just going to class, it’s the entire student experience.”
Payamps said he’s been involved with various clubs in SA and seen the unfair distribution of budget based on representation. He wants to reform SA’s budget to fairly distribute funds based on club membership and activity.
“I want SA’s budget to be based off club population per semester, that way we know who actually needs the funds and who’s abusing funds because of their numbers,” Payamps said. “I just want to see the clubs who actually do good things on campus have funds and with the referendum we’ll have more funds. It’s important that we allocate that extra money and give it to deserving outlets so students are getting the most from their fee.”
Haberl said even if students don’t know what each senator wants to do or where fees go, students should practice their right to vote.
“Whether student vote yes or no, it’s just important to get out and vote so that we have an understanding of where students stand on certain things, that’s why we do it over a span of three days,” Haberl said.
Max Kalnitz is the senior news editor and can be reached at max.kalnitz@ubspectrum.com and on Twitter @Max_Kalnitz
