Students voted yesterday to increase the Duke University Union and Duke Student Government portions of the student activities fee. While the Union's referendum passed by a landslide 45.62 percent margin, DSG's proposed fee increase narrowly passed by 1.96 percent.
A record high 56 percent of students voted on the referenda, far more than the 33 percent participation that was required for the measures to pass.
Both increases in the student activities fee will go into effect for next semester, as an allocated part of the 5.4 percent tuition increase next year. The Union's portion of the fee will increase by $11 per semester or $22 per year. DSG's portion--which goes to the Student Organizational Finance Committee that funds the 200-plus DSG chartered and recognized groups--will increase by $8.50 per semester or $17 per year.
In total, the student activities fee will increase from $128 to $167 per year.
Jesse Panuccio, current president of the Union and a senior, was thrilled with the approval and voter turnout.
"It's result of a lot of the effort we put into this... and also people coming to our programming," Panuccio said. "I thought it showed what effective, honest communication with the student body can accomplish."
For sophomore Jonathan Bigelow, incoming president of the Union, the large amount of support from students was encouraging. "I think it's great to have such strong support," Bigelow said. "It's the only time that the Union gets to solicit feedback from the student body."
Bigelow added that the money could have a major impact on programming. "I think the student body is going to reap huge dividends from the results of this election," he said. "People who have called this campus dead are going to be in for some changes."
Junior Pushpa Raja, chair of SOFC, attributed the large voter turnout to student concern with selecting a new administration within DSG. "The large voter turnout was great," she said. "People have obviously been hearing a lot about DSG lately, and students are ready to move forward with this organization."
Although she was happy with the outcome, Raja added that she was not surprised by the narrow approval.
"I'm not surprised that there's a bias when students are thinking about DSG, and I think that's a fair bias," she said. "I'm glad that there are a large number of students who realized that DSG can help support the organization that they're a part of in the future, and I'm really excited that we get a chance to make a greater contribution."
Some of those funds will likely go into this year's annual budget for student groups, Raja said, although she plans to gather student opinion next year on how to use the funding in the future.
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