by Lola Garcia
All of the student initiatives on last Thursday’s ballot were approved by more than two-thirds of voters, but they all failed. Less than half the student body turned out to vote, and the SGA Constitution requires at least fifty percent of the currently enrolled students to vote in order for any initiative to pass. At least two-thirds of the students voting must approve of the initiative for it to pass.
If an initiative passes, the Student Services Coordinator writes a letter to “appropriate parties,” and the SGA President is responsible for following up on all passed initiatives. The initiatives themselves are non-binding.
At this week’s Joint Board, Student Services Coordinator Drew Blackman ’05 announced that the college would still buy picnic tables, as one of the failed initiatives requested.
Based on action taken on recent initiatives, student voting has not always determined whether or not an initiative is enacted.
Several initiatives passed in recent years have not materialized. A round of particularly successful initiatives passed in fall 2003. However, the college has not changed the Academic Computer Use Policy as demanded in one such initiative. Nor is there college-supported file sharing, more off-campus college-owned housing or a swing set on campus. Ganesha, the Hindu god outside of Noyce, remains without a roof dispite the 2003 initiative, Henry said this issue has not been worked on.
There has been some progress in last semester’s initiatives. Students overwhelming voted for buffer days. The mental health task force had already made a similar recommendation to Vice President of Student Services Tom Crady. Next semester will be the first with a buffer day as Monday of finals week will be cleared of exam periods.
Darkroom space, which was already slated to be in the campus center before the initiative passed, will appear as planned. The student initiative to boycott Coke has lowered the college’s Coke product consumption, according to Henry.
In the past three years, eighteen initiatives have passed, but only three have resulted in a change of policy. Others, like maintaining support for dorm labs (Loose Hall’s lab was closed the following semester) and keeping dorms open longer the first day of breaks (students still must leave by noon Saturday before winter. spring and summer break) have not been enacted.
Others, like the fall 1996 initiative for on-campus walk-in therapy, materialized years later. Only after the suicides of spring 2003 did the college install an on-campus counseling system.
Despite the fact that student initiatives do not necessarily enact change, Henry still thinks they are a “very effective statisitical [tool].” He said that initiative results are primarily effective when members of SGA approach administrators. “It gives us more firepower,” he said. “They’re really good for us to gauge the support of students on certain issues.”
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