UA pushes turnout for referendum

Eighteen percent of students had voted on the current UA referendum as of midnight last night — bringing it only two percentage points away from the 20 needed in order to enter consideration.

A majority of the 20 percent must vote “yes” for the referendum to pass.

Voting began on Sunday and will end tomorrow at 5 p.m.

The referendum would change the internally elected Undergraduate Assembly chairman and vice chairman for external affairs to a directly-elected president and vice president, respectively.

Penn Student Government referenda have a history of failing due to low voter turnout. Some student leaders are doing all they can to make this year different.

Since school-wide voting doesn’t usually occur in the winter, the Nominations and Elections Committee is doing what it can to give the referendum the feel of an election and obtain a similar voter turnout, said College sophomore, NEC Vice Chairman for Publicity and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Sam Bieler.

So far, the group has put up 100 small posters around campus encouraging students to vote and providing the link to the voting site. The NEC has also been flyering on Locust Walk this week.

In addition to the small posters, there are 14 larger, informative posters on Locust Walk, which define what changes the referendum is proposing.

Finally, the NEC placed an ad in The Daily Pennsylvanian to inform those students who may have “slipped through the cracks,” Bieler said.

Engineering junior Jon McCaffrey said he picked up a flyer on the Walk and has noticed an increase in publicity, but isn’t convinced that students will care about the referendum.

However, students pushing for reform have also been making a last-ditch effort to get students to vote.

The leaders of the reform movement created a Facebook event encouraging students to vote “yes.” As of press time, the event had over 600 attendees.

Many have posted both pros and cons to the referendum on the event’s wall.

College senior Zac Byer, a UA member and one of the leaders of the reform movement, said the event has served as a way to address concerns.

Also posted on the event’s wall is a link to a blog where Byer and other reform leaders respond to the listed cons.

Students involved in the reform movement have also been sending e-mails over various listservs asking everyone to vote on the referendum. Byer said he estimates that 50 listservs have been used.

These students have also been canvassing at various locations on campus, such as 1920 Commons and Houston Hall, and will go door to door in the Quadrangle, Hill College House and Kings Court English College House to inform students and get them to vote.

Byer said the canvassing has been going well so far.

Many students have voted on the spot and some have asked questions and raised concerns before voting, he added.

“It’s been great to increase the dialogue on campus about the role of student government here and the role that all representatives should play in terms of representing student concerns,” Byer said.

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