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18 February 2004
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Federation of Students 
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Arts endowment quirks
While the possible Arts Endowment Fund did receive a majority of votes cast in the referendum held with Feds elections last week, it failed to get a binding result. Feds referendum procedure requires that a certain percentage of the electorate vote in favour of the question for it to be binding. The question asked if students would be in favour of an endowment fund to be paid by all undergraduates. There are some unusual circumstances around the referendum. There were far fewer votes cast in the referendum than in the Arts Regular Councilor race even though arts regular is a subset of arts. Arts regular does not include arts co-op students and students in arts at St. Jerome's and Renison. That council race had 3,227 possible voters and saw 759 voters show up compared to the referendum with 5,237 potential voters and 547 voters turnout. The campaigning was irregular. The yes side spent only $8 campaigning out of a possible $500. Yes campaign chair Andrew Dilts tried to resign after campaigning but before voting to avoid policy restrictions on campaign chairs. It was particularly myopic of the Referendum Committee to accept such a resignation. Since the restrictions on campaign chairs, similar to those on candidates, is predicated on the campaign chair having campaigned and there are no provisions for a chair leaving his position part way through the process. The yes votes more than doubled the no votes, but the yes side fell nine votes short of being binding. This is much different from the results of the referendums creating the first student-controlled endowment, WEEF. In those two referendums held on the two co-op streams, more than a third of all engineering students voted in favour of WEEF. On EngSoc B students voted 94 percent in favour of WEEF with a 36 percent turnout and on EngSoc A passed it with 95 percent in favour and a 40 percent turnout. The referendum questions could use improving. The first question did not mention that the fee would be refundable, which is a significant fact in this process. The second question with four options from $10 to $17 dollars. There should be a greater range with more options or just a blank where people can type in their preferred option. This would allow for a higher >possible fee. What can we learn from this? Some students in arts would rather vote for their friends than vote on something that will benefit arts students now and in the future. Given the stakes $8 is far too little to spend on a campaign and there is no great penalty from Feds for being conniving. Arts undergraduates are lacking in community and communication. |