In a Student Union election held Wednesday, April 30 to determine how to spend approximately $100,000 worth of Student Activities Fee rollover funds, 496 students voted for the option to enhance the weight room in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The excess money came from funds that have accumulated over the past five years that have not been allocated by the Finance Board to clubs or had been allocated but not spent by various organizations.

Immediate past Student Union President Shreeya Sinha '09 first announced the Union's intention to allow the student body to decide how this money would be spent in an e-mail to students on April 11.

Sinha wrote that the Union would discuss any proposals submitted by students and put the top several ideas up for the vote. Students were encouraged to submit proposals that would enhance the lives of students and ideally be one-time expenditures.

The amount of money available may be less than expected, wrote Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer in an e-mail to the Justice. In the worst case scenario, the Union may only be able to give the project $50,000, Sawyer said.

Should the weight room prove to be too expensive, the Union would return to the ballot results and choose the most next popular choice that is affordable, Sawyer said.

The winning proposal barely defeated another suggestion submitted by Stephanie Sofer '09, to put solar paneling on a Brandeis building, which received 474 of the 1,325 votes, a difference of .66 percent.

Had the plan to install solar panels prevailed, one of Brandeis' buildings would have been graced with a 17 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system, reducing Brandeis' carbon emissions by 20,000 lbs a year according to the proposal.

In third place was a proposal for renovations to Cholmondeleys submitted by Sarah Richardson, activities advisor for the Department of Student Activities. The proposal received 139 votes.

A proposal for a 10-student trip to Rwanda intended to give students experience in working for sustainable development, submitted by Sam Vaghar '08, came in fourth with 91 votes.

The proposal for year-round, free STI testing at the Health Center was submitted by Jessica Blumberg '09 and Rebecca Wilkof '10. It received 46 votes, while the proposal to build a radio transmitter for WBRS submitted by Ravi Kotecha '10 received 34 votes, the proposal to hold a Peace and Justice Week, proposed by Michael Riga '09, received 26 votes, and the proposal for a one-day carnival proposed by Ilyssa Adler '09 and Lauren Barish '09, which received 19 votes, came in last.

Due to the narrow margin by which the weight-room proposal won over the plan to construct solar panels, a portion of the student body petitioned, primarily through Facebook, for a runoff election. However, this initiative did not come to fruition due to stipulations on the election's first ballot that stated that a second-round election would only occur "if there was a tie." Otherwise, the election would only entail one round.

The winning proposal was put forward by Cassidy Dadaos '09 and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Dadaos said that "Gosman is really a beautiful, well-equipped athletic center but the weight room has always been a point of concern for the student body and for student athletes. We felt as though it'd be a great place to use the SAF rollover funding because so many different members of the Brandeis community do use the facility."

The Student Union "will be working with the University to implement the renovation of the weight room. The implementation process will include working with the University and Athletics regarding finances, a bidding process and ensuring the appropriate equipment for the Student Body is bought. I predict it will happen during this coming winter break," said Union President Jason Gray.

Gray added that despite the fact that the solar panel proposal did not receive the SAF funds, those students in favor of their construction "should send a strong message to the administration. ... It is important to live up to the values of social justice that we espouse, including continuing to green our campus and creating in our community a culture of conservation.