Referendum needs 1000 votes

Student Senate survey centers around student life issues

Think 400 Oberlin students can change Student Senate's agenda? Student senators don't. That's why their current referendum requires 50 percent of the student body to vote on it, although only 400 students have done so.

Senate is short of its fixed target by about 1000 votes.

The referendum, or poll of the student body, is currently available for students to vote on over alpha.

It centers around four issues pertinent to student life, including the creation of alternative on-campus housing, the College's investment practices and the new Student Union Board. Each of these issues has been raised for discussion in Senate's weekly meetings over the course of this semester.

Senate's constitution binds senators to pursue an agenda in accordance with whichever way the majority of the student body votes on each issue, according to senator sophomore Sarah Stein Greenberg.

"This is the only way for the entire student body to vote on issues," Stein Greenberg said. "And it's a really good way for us to get some feedback. Students can make an overwhelming and powerful statement, and then we'd be compelled to work on that statement."

Although the referendum addresses a variety of issues, it is only required to be held on the subject of the new Senate pay structure. Senate's recently-revised constitution allows for 10 hours of weekly pay for senators if the student body approves that pay structure in a yearly referendum vote.

Before this year, senators were not paid for their work on Senate. The new compensation structure has opened many doors for Senate, according to senator senior Joshua Kaye.

"The fact that senators are now paid makes a huge difference in who runs for Senate," Kaye said.

He said many senators put in an average of 15 to 20 hours per week, and might not have time to participate in Senate and simultaneously hold down another job if Senate didn't compensate them.

"We are covered by work study this way. A lot of people who are on the work-study program who are currently running will be unable to run if the vote doesn't come through in favor of compensation," Kaye said.

Senator double-degree junior Adriana Lopez-Young, who was elected to Senate at the beginning of this semester, said, "I joined Senate because I have to work and I was interested in pursuing student activism for wages. Senate seemed like the answer to that."

The referendum asks students to vote on whether or not to continue compensating senators, as well as whether Senate should hold a reaffirming referendum yearly or bi-annually.

Senators chose to include issues besides compensation on the referendum in order to gain more student input, according to Kaye.

"The issue of alternative on-campus housing is an important one to raise," Kaye said. "Oberlin College is saying that Oberlin students want it and our suspicion is that Oberlin students have not been asked. We thought it was time for somebody to ask."

Although the referendum has been available for students to vote on since April 15, only a small proportion of the student body has e-mailed votes. Stein Greenberg said paper ballots will soon be available in an effort to conduct outreach to more students.

"This is the one mechanism students can use to express themselves in a binding way to the administration and to Senate," Stein Greenberg said. "In that sense, it's extremely important that they vote."

If at least 50 percent of the student body does not vote by the end of the semester, each of the issues will be considered to have failed the referendum.

Stein Greenberg said she anticipates that more students will vote in the referendum soon. "It's been slow, but I have no doubt we'll see it through," she said.