On Apr. 27 of last year, Tufts' Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO) group held a referendum administered by Tufts' Elections Board (ELBO) to gauge students' enthusiasm for wind power on campus. The referendum passed with overwhelming 88 percent support.
On Mar. 28 of this year, however, the referendum's results were invalidated by the Committee on Student Life (CSL).
The referendum asked students to vote on whether they would support a $20 increase in the student activities fee to help bring wind-generated power to the Medford campus. It would not have directly brought about changes to the University's existing wind power policy; rather, it was held to discern the student body's level of support for wind power on campus.
The CSL's decision to invalidate the referendum followed nearly a year of contention over the referendum's legitimacy. That period of contention began five days after last year's referendum, when then-Editor-in-Chief of the Primary Source Nicholas Boyd, now a senior, filed a complaint with the Tufts Community Union Judiciary (TCUJ).
Boyd said that a link on the TCU Elections Board (ELBO) Web site directed students to information supporting a pro-wind power vote, but offered no such information for the opposing position.
The vote's nullification was a long process. The initial hearing with the TCUJ was held on May 8 of last year. Boyd was unable to attend the hearing, so then-junior Nicole Balkind represented the Primary Source in front of the TCUJ.
After the initial hearing, the TCUJ decided not to overturn the election results, but did say that ELBO had conducted the election improperly.
At that time, the TCUJ also provided a new procedure for conducting student referenda, mandating that in the future, the TCU Senate provide a list of both pros and cons on those issues subject to student referenda.
Boyd and the Primary Source were unsatisfied with these results. Accordingly, they elected to protest both the ruling to uphold the original election results and the guidelines for holding referenda.
Boyd took his complaints to the Committee on Student Life (CSL), which did not hold a hearing on the matter until this current semester.
"Due to a lot of difficulties in getting a committee together, we didn't have a hearing until this semester," said senior Jordana Starr, a current member of the CSL who sat on the TCUJ last semester.
The CSL decided last week both to invalidate last year's election results and to overturn the new referendum procedure that the TCUJ had proposed.
Boyd noted that many students questioned the value of protesting a non-binding vote. While he did not doubt that the referendum passed with a majority in favor, he worried that the lack of publicity opposing wind power had inflated the 88 percent approval figure.
He defended the Primary Source's stance on the issue, explaining that the vote "was... to show students' support for the matter," and thus the exact percentage of students in favor of the referendum was just as significant as whether a simple majority voted yes.
While last year's TCUJ voted to uphold the original results of the referendum, this year's members agreed with the CSL that the original results should be overturned.
"None of us this year, after reasoning it out more... had a problem with the CSL's decision," said sophomore Alexander Clark, the current head of the TCUJ. "The CSL decided to overturn [last year's decisions] with the assent of this
year's J."
"Since the problem with the election was not a problem with the promoter [ECO], it was decided that a new vote would be held," Clark added.
A new referendum on wind power will be held on Apr. 20, when students will also choose a TCU senate president for the 2006-2007 school year.
"It doesn't really matter what the students say; [the ruling] is just to maintain the integrity of the process," said CSL member Starr.
"It was basically a very happy ending; everybody was pleased. The CSL was more the mediator than anything else," Starr said.
Regardless of what students decide in the upcoming referendum, the administration will ultimately decide whether or not the student activities fee will rise.
"The administration is ... unwilling to raise the student activities fee," said ECO representative and junior Amanda Fencl. "But hopefully we have funds someplace."
The original vote was held to garner for support ECO's cause in lobbying administrators.
"I think the fact that they are bringing it up again will actually work in our favor," said Fencl. "We are ... anticipating another successful vote."
Fencl said that if the administration remains unwilling to raise fees for wind power energy, ECO will plan a campaign next year to solicit donations from students.
