Last week A.S. councilmembers blocked the Loft from adding a fee referendum to their spring ballot, swiftly denying students the ability to fund UCSD’s infant nightclub, should they so choose. The council’s reasoning? The A.S. general election is for voting on A.S. things only; those Loft kids can go make their own election on the other side of the sandbox. You know, people might confuse this Loft referendum for another A.S. referendum (because there are certainly no other instances when people vote for multiple measures at once). Oh, and because the council represents all students ‘mdash; based on that strategically maneuvered unopposed election, which only a fifth of the campus voted in last year ‘mdash; it’s totally within the group’s jurisdiction to make decisions regarding the future of this well-attended, albeit brand new, venue. (Note that this meeting took place, appropriately enough, over the bumping beats of a capacity-filled Loft show.)
And it’s a shame ‘mdash; regardless of whether the Loft ultimately deserves student funding, students definitely deserve the chance to vote on the issues affecting them directly. By not even allowing this issue to go before the student body, councilmembers are completely disregarding the best interests of their constituents. If the council is really concerned with student oversight, there is no greater oversight than a student vote, the language of which had been presented by the student-involved University Centers Advisory Board and was open to council adjustment.
Running a separate election, as the council suggested, would be an unnecessary waste of funding (the council is already going to spend a few grand to organize and publicize its election) and energy, given that the A.S. election occurs annually, regardless. In order to provide students the most efficient and relevant voting experience ‘mdash; and to help overcome a history of low voter turnout ‘mdash; councilmembers should be doing everything they can to get campus issues like Loft funding on their spring ballot.
Forget students, putting the Loft referendum to a vote would even be in the council’s best interest. In addition to boosting turnout ‘mdash; think how many more students visit, and thus care about, the Loft than its upstairs’ neighbor the A.S. Forum ‘mdash; a reasonable ($3.29 was proposed) fee referendum would allow the A.S. programming office to gauge student interest in the space it has largely utilized for events this year.
There is absolutely no reason students shouldn’t be voting on a Loft fee referendum come spring, and this council’s egoism is getting old.