AS rejects $30 Internet referendum
By D. Lynn Bond & Bradley Hart
The Collegian
The Associated Students Senate has voted to formally oppose one of the referendums slated to appear on the April ballot while recommending that students vote for the second.
The Tuesday night vote to oppose the first measure, a $30 per semester fee to improve campus technology services, was unanimous.
Committe chair Michael Karbassi, who reviewed the proposal said the referendum is not a good idea.
"I think it could be a lot more cost-effective," Karbassi said. "We need to study the real needs for students."
The decision to oppose the fee increase came after the Senate met with Provost Jeronima Echeverria regarding the proposal.
Echeverria highlighted some of the ways the more than $1 million dollars raised by the referendum’s passage would be spent, including an expansion of Fresno State e-mail capacity and expansion of current help desk services.
Before voting to formally oppose the measure, several senators expressed concerns about oversight and management of the money raised.
While voting to oppose the measure, the Senate’s resolution called for future exploration of technology issues through other means, including the possible creation of a new committee.
While senators voted as a block to oppose the first resolution they split on issuing a recommendation on the second, which would charge students $10 a semester to increase funding for international and study abroad programs through a fund earmarked for Instructionally Related Activities (IRA).
President Jennifer Reimer told the senate that Fresno State’s IRA fee is currently among the lowest in the CSU system.
Several senators argued that while the current IRA budget is exceeded each year by requests to travel to special events and overseas, the fee increase would only directly benefit several dozen students each year.
“I have a huge problem having the entire 20,000 students paying for a select amount of students to go study abroad,” Senator-at Large Stephen Trembley said.
Half the senate disagreed with Trembley, ultimately voting to approve the resolution supporting the measure. Six senators voted in favor of the measure while five opposed it and one abstained.
“I understand the point of [the fee increase] only benefiting 40-65 students but we also have to realize that we as a whole pay for IRA fees that already go to international students,” Arts and Humanities senator Erica Dement said. “The increase in IRA fees will definitely benefit the rest of the campus.”
The senate must now decide how to express its recommendations to students before the referendums are voted on in early April.
Current AS presidential candidate and Senator-at-Large John Migliazzo voted to recommend the defeat of the first referendum and the approval of the second.
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