More than students’ choices for Undergraduate Student Government candidates last Tuesday. Two ballot initiatives also passed.
The first initiative, which called for the elimination of all benefits for the USG president and vice president, passed with 61.9 percent (3,702 votes). The second initiative, which called for the creation of undergraduate scholarships funded by 25 percent of USG’s $200,000 budget, passed with 70.2 percent (3,987 votes).
However, both initiatives cannot go into action as written because of how they are funded, according to
USG president and vice president benefits are privately funded by the Richard Mall Scholarship. Therefore it is up to the scholarship’s benefactors, not the university administration, to decide how and when to allocate the scholarship, said Matt Couch, USG adviser.
Deb Mason, former USG vice president, said if the scholarship is turned down by the president, the money will sit in the fund until next year.
“Legally there is nothing we can do with that money as far as giving it back to students,” she said.
The second initiative called for 25 percent of USG’s budget to be set aside for an undergraduate scholarship fund.
Seventy five percent of USG’s budget is funded by the Student Activity Fee. The other 25 percent comes from the Coca-Cola endowment.
According to the Council of Student Affairs, which monitors student organizations’ Student Activity Fee-funded spending, “Expenditures designed for the personal gain of individuals and not the organization as a whole” are a non-fundable operating expense.
The council’s allocation guidelines do allow for scholarship funding if the scholarship is used as part of a program’s award. In that case, only 10 percent of the total money used to fund a specific program can go toward this scholarship but it would have to be connected to the program, said Kerry Hodak, chair of the council.
However, initiatives are considered advisories, said Kara Silverman, director for the Elections Governance Board.
The initiatives are recommendations for the new administration but do not constitute immediate action. If passed, they are taken to the USG senate for vote, and subject to the USG president’s veto, she said.
Suzanne Scharer, USG president, said she and Matt Kreiner, USG vice president, are going to meet with university officials about the initiatives and the funding of the areas the initiatives address.
“They know how the money is supposed to be spent and then we will make sure that we carry out those rules,” she said.
As for the first initiative, Scharer said she and Kreiner are looking to see if the money can be transferred to students in some way.
However, she said as of right now it does not look like that can happen.
Couch said the USG president and vice president are not allowed to hold outside jobs.
“(The scholarship allows the positions) to be to be open to students who might not have a strong financial background or have a lot of money at their disposal,” said Aftab Pureval, former USG president.
“Probably the biggest question is whether (Kreiner) and I are going to accept (the Mall scholarship),” Scharer said. “We’ll just have to wait to work with CSA on how best to use the money.
As for the second initiative, Scharer said she does not know if that is the best to spend the USG budget.
“Certainly students felt that way and voted that way but for initiatives who had no opposition, only passing by 60 percent really isn’t that strong,” Scharer said. “We’re here and we’re here to reflect what students think but we’re also here to get the right information about those initiatives.”
Scharer said she and Kreiner will be working on the USG budget over the summer.
She said budget does not have to be finalized until the second week of fall quarter.
“It will probably be fall when we can come to students and say ‘This is what’s going on. This is the information. This is what you voted on but this is what the real information is,” Scharer said.
Scharer said that if the authors or the sponsors of the initiative researched the areas involved in the initiatives, they would have realized that they probably could not happen.
Scharer said the initiatives were misleading. She also said that, if accurate information had been presented to students, she does know if they would have passed.
“I want students to feel that they can voice their concerns and maybe voice their concerns so much that they can want it on a ballot but I want them to have the background information on it so that the information presented to students is accurate,” she said.
According to EGB bylaws, the only rules regarding ballot initiatives are about the number of signatures on the initiative petition necessary, the date and time the petition is due and the format of the petition.
Silverman and Scharer both said the bylaws regarding initiatives will be looked into next year.
Scharer said that by defining initiatives more in the EGB bylaws this will not happen again next year.
During this month, the new EGB director will be appointed, pending senate approval.
