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The Rice Thresher
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by Meghan Miller thresher staff
Spring Elections take place March 23-28. The new version of the referendum, approved Monday night by the Student Association Senate, focuses on the need to increase the current $10 per student fee by $5 to compensate for inflation. The referendum states that the money will be used to improve training for officials, increase officials' salaries and upgrade equipment. "We need to make an investment into officiating," Mona Hicks, director of Student Activities, said. "We have great refs. They're spread too thin sometimes." Hicks added that the increased fee would make intramural sports safer. Hicks said this is because when referees are poorly trained or do not show up, the risk of injury increases. Hicks and IM Director Tina Villard, who worked on the referendum, said they hope emphasizing that the program budget has not increased in eight years will increase support for additional funding. "We haven't had a raise in eight years," Villard said. "When you look at it, you can't find any budget that hasn't had a raise in eight years." Hicks and Villard are working with the sports representatives in the colleges to inform students about the election. The previous referendum was defeated by 15 votes in the General Elections Feb. 23-28. "I think that people were kind of looking at it wrong," Villard said. "They were looking at it as we were looking for this extra money, but the thing is we actually need the money. I think there's a lot of people who didn't know what the referendum was about. We're going to start earlier letting people know." Brown College junior Jo Rees said she voted against the IM sports referendum because she didn't understand what the money would be used to improve. "I had absolutely no idea what it was," said Rees, who plays IM sports. "From the nonexistent explanations you get when you're voting online, I didn't want to give more money. ... Now that I know what it [the money] is needed for, I would have voted for it." SA President-elect Gavin Parks agreed that the lack of information about the previous referendum kept it from passing and encouraged senators to inform their colleges about its importance. "If we want this to pass, then we have to put the word out, really, that this will be on the ballot," Parks, a Hanszen College junior, said. Jones College sophomore Debra Black said she did not think the referendum was given enough importance during the last elections. "I haven't really talked about it with other people," said Black, who voted in favor of the fee increase. "I haven't really thought about it." An informational sheet about the referendum handed out at Monday's SA meeting stated "over 50 percent of the student population participates one or more events each year." It goes on to say that more than half of students participate in over 60 events each year, making up more than 420 IM teams. The revised version of the referendum states, "Currently, the Intramural Sports Program budget is working at a 24 percent deficit since its inception in 1993, under-funded in training and salaries for sports officials and depreciated equipment. The Intramural Sports Program is proposing a $5 student fee increase from $10 to $15 to upgrade the level of safety and service to students."
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