Student group event fee referendum fails

A referendum that would have raised quarterly student fees by $3 to provide more funding for student organizations fell short of the votes needed to pass last week, to the disappointment of some group leaders.

“The referendum’s failure hurts because we might not be able to help our programs grow,” said Isabelle Chu, a second-year psychobiology student and a member of the Taiwanese American Union.

Undergraduate Students Association Council funding covered a majority of this year’s production costs for Taiwanese Culture Night, said Chu, the finance director for the event. Without more available funds the event may not be able to accommodate its growing audience demand, she said.

The student group event referendum won 46.1 percent of the vote, falling short of the majority requirement for its passage. If passed, the $3 per quarter would have been split between the USAC Contingency Programming Fund, the USA/Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors Programming Fund and the Community Activities Committee fund.

Current Community Service Commissioner Cynthia Wong proposed the fee increase in response to increasing demand for funding from students and a 31.7 percent decrease in USA/ASUCLA Board of Directors Programming and Contingency funds since 2009.

After the results were announced, Wong said she was disappointed.

“I was surprised because I thought this referendum impacted a lot of students,” Wong said. “The fact that students aren’t supportive is a sign of other issues at UCLA.”

Cindy Wang, USAC Finance Committee chair and a supporter of the referendum, said she thinks the referendum failed because many students thought it would have primarily benefited registered student groups instead of the entire student body.

Wong said she thinks referendum supporters should have done more this year to advocate for the measure, such as reaching out to student groups and campaigning in person. Instead, she said they campaigned through social media and spent no funds for a campaign.

Wong added she thinks referendum advocates did not have sufficient manpower for campaigning because the measure was proposed by an independent councilmember and thus lacked the support of a slate. Independents typically struggle to win sufficient votes in USAC to take contested council seats, though referendums proposed by independents have passed before.

Lilian Chou, a third-year environmental science student, said she voted against the referendum because she said she thinks she already pays too much in student fees. Chou said she voted to approve a fee increase last year and didn’t want to vote for another increase again.

“No matter how slight (the fee), I didn’t want to pay another increase two years in a row,” Chou said.

If the referendum had passed, the Community Activities Committee fund would have received $1.13 of the quarterly fee while the others would have received $0.56 each. The remaining $0.75 would have gone toward financial aid, in line with university policy. The $3 fee would have increased with inflation each year starting in fall 2016. If it had passed, it would have raised about $260,000 next year.