The Student Bill of Rights and a constitutional amendment regarding finances passed in referendum in the Student Union election May 1.A total of 1084 students voted on the issue of passing the Bill of Rights and 89.02 percent voted in favor of the bill. The constitutional amendment for finances passed with a 90.2 percent majority, according to the Union Web site.

The vote was intended to see "exactly how students felt about our articulation of student rights," Director of Community Development Ryan McElhaney '10 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

"While I did expect a majority of students to stand behind the [Bill of Rights], I didn't expect such an overwhelming majority and I think this speaks to the need for a document like this to be incorporated into University policy. . The vote totals will be very important when it comes to showing the administration how important this document is to the student body," said Union President Jason Gray '10.

"I will be working to get the University to incorporate the Student Bill of Rights into the University's governing structure and to improve Rights and Responsibilities to accurately reflect the rights that students deserve," said Gray.

According to McElhaney, forums, discussions and other events are planned for next semester to inform students about the Bill of Rights current progress and to allow students to clarify what they would like to see included in tthe bill, in order to further refine the bill. "One of the most important parts of this process that seems to be forgotten is how much of a community effort it was to create, disseminate, edit and pass this bill of rights," McElhaney said.

He added, "I have worked closely with different grad students as well as undergrads so that it is understood that these rights should extend to all students, and thus all students need to be a part of the process."

The other issue on the referendum, the constitutional amendment for finances, which, according to Gray, "will improve our financial system, by allowing clubs to access more money in a more efficient way," has several components.

Student Union Treasurer Max Wallach '09 explained in an e-mail to the Justice that one component was "the removal of the current Capital Expenditures fund, a fund holding money in reserve for clubs which, prior to the amendment, stood at $150,000. This fund was extremely underutilized and merely contributed to the rollover issues the student union faced."

Wallach wrote the CapEx was removed and replaced with a $25,000 reserve fund. This fund allows clubs access to Student Activites Fee funds that were previously unavailable. The Finance Board will be able to increase the reserve fund by about $25,000 if they deem this an appropriate measure.

The second component of the amendment involves a one-year cap on the SAF. The SAF is generally an additional 1 percent of tuition, increasing with tuition every year. However, Wallach explained, in order to "catch up with rollover and ensure that there are no unspent funds, the [Student Union] decided it was necessary to cap the SAF for one year at the current value of $150,000 dollars."

"At the end of the spring [2009] semester, we will be appealing to the administration and board of trustees to remove the SAF cap, assuming demand for SAF funds is sufficient," he wrote.

The third component involved a succession plan for the Union treasurer to make sure that "club finances do not halt in the event a treasurer steps down or is removed from office," Wallach wrote.

"This was necessary due to the high turnover rate of treasurers in recent years and the fact that club finances must operate efficiently on a day-to-day basis, or else the consequences for club life would be devastating," he wrote.

Wallach also wrote that the Union has not yet decided how to implement the amendment next semester. "The capping of SAF in particular will require careful financial management, and also effective club spending to ensure that we will be able to convince the administration that SAF should be increasing each year,"?he wrote.

Wallach added. "This can be demonstrated through a high demand for SAF funds from clubs throughout the Finance Board and the effective spending of the money allocated.