John Muir College’s referendum to raise student fees to $7 per quarter, a $5 per quarter increase, passed by a two-thirds margin.

A similar referendum at Eleanor Roosevelt College that would have created a Roosevelt student fee of $5 per quarter recently failed by eight votes.

The referendums were put on the ballot to expand the programming offered at each college, according to each college’s council chair.

Muir’s referendum, which was voted on two weeks ago and will double Muir College Council’s budget, will take effect in fall 2002. Roosevelt’s referendum was voted on three weeks ago.

“”[The referendum’s failure] definitely limits the amount of programming we can do and type of programming we can do,”” said Roosevelt College Council Chair David Goodwin. “”[Students] potentially were not aware of the benefits [the fee increase] would bring them.””

Muir College Council Chair Elizabeth Erwin said that nearly every organization received less money than it requested from Muir College Council this year.

A similar referendum, which would double the Marshall College Council budget, is set to take place at Thurgood Marshall College, said Marshall College Council Finance Director Kevin Kelly.

The election will take place from Feb. 25 through Feb. 28. The location of polling booths has not been decided, Kelly said.

Marshall Junior Senator William Tunick stressed the need to educate voters on the referendum in order for it to pass.

“”I think it will depend a lot on the amount of education the publicity council is able to do,”” Tunick said. “”If people are informed, know there’s a referendum, understand what it’s about, then it’ll have a pretty good chance of passing.””

“”There are a lot of programs out there that we’d really like to help if we could,”” Tunick said.

Revelle College is also considering a fee referendum.

Revelle College Council Chair Mark Stickel said in an e-mail that the Revelle council is pursuing a possible referendum, with a likely fee increase of $2.

Stickel’s e-mail also stated that many organizations and activities would be improved by the fee increase.

“”The money would go to the college council and be distributed to Revelle organizations to improve events and activities,”” he stated. “”Right now, we are just looking at our options and trying to determine what students want, so nothing is set in stone yet.””

But not all colleges are considering sponsoring fee referendums.

Warren College Council Chair Jesse Coward said that idea of a Warren referendum had not come up.

“”We’ve actually had almost extra money at the end of the year that we need to spend,”” Coward said. “”We haven’t traditionally done larger-scale programs.””

Warren students pay no activity fee, so Warren programming is funded entirely by vending machine profits and the A.S. Council, according to Coward.

“”We generally put on a lot of programs throughout the year,”” Coward said. “”I think part of [the reason there is not a Warren referendum] may be that we’re the largest college, so first of all, we get more money.””

Each college council receives money from the A.S. Council proportional to each college’s population, and each council also receives a portion of the vending machine profits.

Warren College Council Treasurer Marcus Lee said that the A.S. Council allocated $14,478 to the Warren council this school year. By contrast, Muir received $11,950 from the A.S. Council.

Low voter turnout has characterized many past college elections but both Muir and Roosevelt were able to breach the 15 percent mark, which validates an election.

Voter turnout for Roosevelt’s referendum, which was done electronically through StudentLink, was over 20 percent according to Roosevelt Dean of Student Affairs Patricia Scott. It failed, 210-202.

The Muir referendum had a turnout of “”roughly 18 percent of Muir College’s winter quarter enrollment,”” with 434 students voting for the fee increase and 223 students voting against it, according to m Muir Dean Charles Dreilinger.