NEC invalidates Greek funding referendum

and Jeremy Reiss Anyone outside Houston Hall at about 1 a.m. this morning may have heard a rather loud cheer emanating from the Ben Franklin Room. That is because after four hours of deliberations, the Nominations and Elections Committee announced it would invalidate a referendum that would have taken away $30,000 the Undergraduate Assembly placed in a discretionary fund for the use of the InterFraternity Council due to violations of the rules governing referenda. According to NEC Chairperson Chris LaVigne, between 30 percent and 35 percent of the student body voted on the referendum -- which, if passed, would have reserved the $30,000 for events approved by the Student Activities Council -- reversing the UA's decision to co-sponsor certain IFC activities. The referendum required only a 15 percent voter turnout to be binding. LaVigne, a College senior, would not comment on whether the referendum would have passed, but a source close to student government said he heard it gained a majority "yes" vote. The referendum was thrown out because the NEC agreed with IFC President Josh Belinfante's claim that SAC's publicity in favor of the referendum consisted of "half-truths, extortions and dishonest statements." During the hearings, Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Noah Bilenker and Belinfante, both College juniors, presented to the NEC five charges of violations of the Fair Practices Code, which regulates student government elections. The $30,000 in question was placed in the discretionary fund more than a month ago at the UA budget meeting in response to Belinfante's request for IFC funding for non-alcoholic, campus-wide events. As a result of the funding, SAC's budget was $30,000 less than it would have been otherwise. While four of the charges were dropped, the NEC concurred with Belinfante's charge that SAC members presented misleading publicity to the student body, exaggerating the degree to which SAC groups would be hurt by the decrease in their budget. Belinfante cited one e-mail sent to the International Relations Undergraduate Student Association and accidentally to all International Relations majors which he said told students to "vote for the referendum or [the IRUSA] will no longer get funding from SAC." He also complained about posters which urged students to vote against alcohol-free parties -- a misinterpretation of how the $30,000 will be spent. "This makes it look like there's going be alcohol-free frat parties, which, honestly, I've never heard of," Belinfante said. Belinfante also charged the NEC for failing to invite the IFC, an interested party, to the referendum meeting. The NEC threw out the charge because no interested groups, including SAC, were invited. Bilenker, who did not run for re-election, charged the NEC and College and Engineering senior Ben Goldberger -- a former NEC chairperson and former member of the SAC Executive Board -- with failing to clearly explain the referendum on the ballot and in a Daily Pennsylvanian ad. Bilenker claimed that many students did not understand that voting "yes" meant that the money would revert to SAC, while a "no" vote would uphold the UA allocation to the IFC. In particular, the College junior claimed many students confused voting to adopt the referendum with voting to adopt the UA budget and its IFC allocation. One of the referendum's authors, Elizabeth Scanlon, responded to the charges on behalf of Goldberger, who was out of town. She said the writers of the referendum had no responsibility to make sure all of the voters understood. "It's not against the rules to mislead people," the College senior said, calling the idea of throwing out the election results due to "misleading ads" ridiculous. "Imagine the presidential campaign being thrown out because one candidate called another's ads misleading," Scanlon said. Bilenker also claimed that the referendum should have been classified as "constitutional" -- or requiring a change in the UA's constitution -- rather than "miscellaneous." Constitutional referenda require a 20 percent voter turnout to be binding, rather than 15 percent for "miscellaneous." The referendum "does not actually change the text of the budget," NEC officials said in response to the charge, which was dismissed. Following the NEC announcement of the decision, the largely Greek crowd that remained reacted positively. "[The NEC] realized the referendum had as much of an unbiased nature as a statement coming out of Bill Clinton's mouth against sexual harassment," a jubilant Belinfante said. And current UA Vice Chairperson Samara Barend, who was re-elected to the UA, supported the NEC decision. "The referendum, if it had passed, would have completely undercut the budgetary powers of the UA," said Barend, who is not Greek. SAC Chairperson and referendum author Sang Cha, a Wharton junior, said posters concerning the referendum were very explicit and did not mislead voters. But he said he would accept the NEC's decision.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.