"Mandatory Activity Fee Is Approved, Increase Accepted"

The student activity fee will remain mandatory for the next four years and will increase by $10 next semester after both referendums passed during an SA vote earlier this week.

In the coinciding Student Association Senate elections, the Your UB Voice party nearly swept all 12 Senate seats, taking all six on-campus positions and all but one of the off-campus positions.

Brittany Shapiro, an independent candidate, won the last Senate seat.

When the polls closed Wednesday night, 2,839 undergraduate students had voted. According to SA President Anthony Burgio, the voter turnout was the highest in 20 years.

"I was impressed with how many students voted, and everything passing really beat my expectations," Burgio said.

Over 2,000 students voted to keep the fee mandatory, while 295 students voted to make it voluntary. The proposed $10 increase passed by over 1,000 votes, with 1,873 voting in favor of it.

"The numbers were the amazing part," said Burgio, who has been campaigning for the increase all semester. "It wasn't just that it passed. It passed with only a few hundreds no's."

Burgio said he believes the margin by which the increase passed indicates SA is on the right track and that students like the services their student government provides.

Sub-Board Vice President Reid Antonacchio echoed Burgio's sentiments.

"The margin showed that students realized how important SA is and what they get from it, that they're willing to spend more money to maintain what they're getting," he said.

Antonacchio said while having nearly 3,000 students vote was a positive, he hopes five years from now more than just one-sixth of the undergraduate population will be motivated to go to the polls.

"This school is so apathetic. Just the fact that this many students came out and voted shows they're taking an interest," he said.

According to Burgio, most of the increase - which adds another $300,000 onto SA's budget - will go towards basic expenditures such as clubs and entertainment, with about $55,000 going into SA's reserves.

"We're going to sit down as the E-board and direct what the money will go towards," he said.

The day after the vote, student opinions spread out across a wide spectrum.

Tera McIlwain, freshman biology major, said she was unhappy that the increase passed.

"I think it's unfair because we pay a lot to go to this school, and any money we could save would be good," she said.

William Cobb, a sophomore English major, thought differently.

"I think it should be increased because I really don't see where else SA would be able to get the money from," he said.

Some students complained they weren't able to vote.

"I tried to vote, but they wouldn't let me," said Karen Clark, a senior history major. "They scanned my card, and they asked if I was a graduate student. I said no, and they told me I wasn't registered."

Clark said she was disappointed because she was planning to vote against the increase. "This has never happened to me before," she said.

In the Senate elections, Burgio said Your UB Voice was one of the "one of the best" parties out there, but was glad to have an independent on board.

"We have a great independent candidate, and I'm glad we have at least one in office," he said. "I look forward to working with them all."

Peter Rizzo, a UB Voice off-campus Senator, said he was pleased with the election results but wished more students had voted. Rizzo attributed his party's success to its "diversity and the fact that we are involved in so many areas and aspects of university life."

"We worked hard because we feel that we know what is best for the students and we will certainly push to make the best decisions possible," Rizzo said.

Eliot Sherman, a UB Voice on-campus Senator, said he's very excited to get to work after winning the election and was happy the increased passed.

"I'm not sure of how we're allocating the money yet, but we know we won't have to cut anything from clubs," he said.

According to Rizzo, the Senate will need to sit down and talk with the E-board before anything is decided.

"If the (allocation proposals) need to be changed, we'll discuss that," he said.

"Most students are not involved with clubs," he added. "It's only about a thousand. We have to allocate the money appropriately so that every student benefits."

The referendum to allocate $1 per semester to The Spectrum also passed, by nearly 1,300 votes.