Thurgood Marshall College’s referendum to create a Marshall student fee of $2 per quarter passed by a vote of 497-168 with a voter turnout of 19 percent, according to TMC Elections Manager and Finance Director Kevin Kelly.
The referendum will take effect in spring quarter and double Marshall College Council’s budget.
All Marshall organizations will most likely receive part of the roughly $8,000 per quarter that will be raised by the referendum, Kelly said. Next year’s Marshall College Council will decide how the money will be spent.
“”We kind of just want to pump everything that we have up,”” said Marshall Activity Student Committee Chair Meredith Knell.
Voting on the referendum took place from Monday through Thursday of last week on Library Walk and at Peterson Hall throughout the day, and at Oceanview Terrace at night, according to Kelly.
“”We printed exactly 1,000 ballots and accounted for all of them,”” said Marshall Junior Senator William Tunick.
Kelly said 35 percent of the students who voted were freshmen, 23 percent of the voters were sophomores, another 23 percent were juniors and 18 percent were seniors.
“”I was really surprised on the number of third- and fourth-years and commuters,”” said Marshall Sophomore Senator and poll worker Sierra Catcott.
Tunick said that before the referendum takes effect, the Marshall College Council has to certify the election results. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph Watson then has to approve the referendum before forwarding it to the chancellor, who has to forward it to the UC Board of Regents. The regents could approve it at their next meeting.
Although Marshall College Council set aside $75 for both supporters and opponents of the referendum to use for publicity, there was “”very little”” active campaigning, Kelly said.
“”There was more of a negative reaction from [voters] who didn’t know too much about [the referendum],”” said Marshall Publicity Director Doriana Bailey. “”Generally, [reactions] were pretty positive.””
Marshall’s $2 referendum passed by a 3-1 margin, compared to a 2-1 margin on Muir’s $5 referendum, and a 202-210 vote tally on Roosevelt’s failed $5 referendum. Revelle is considering a $2 referendum, while Warren is not considering any referendum, according to the councils of the respective colleges.
Kelly said that because of the Marshall referendum, Marshall College Council has some ideas for very large events, but that “”we don’t want to get hopes up.””
The Marshall College Council is currently “”figuring out a method for entertaining proposals for new organizations,”” Kelly said.
He said the council has not recruited more organizations in the past years because funding a new organization would have taken money away from current Marshall organizations.
Some Marshall students said they don’t mind the additional fees in light of how much they already pay for tuition.
“”$2 out of the thousands that we’re already charged — that’s not too much of an increase,”” said Marshall freshman Pa Vue.
Marshall freshman Wendy Lam said that she didn’t have time to vote.
“”It would probably be all right if they just gave the ballots in the mail,”” Lam said.
“”Another college had $40,000 and we only had a $21,000 budget,”” Nguyen said. “”I wouldn’t mind paying that fee if they put more money toward student activities.””