Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

Wednesday the ASUA Senate supported an immediate student vote on the activity fee referendum that has been in the works for the past semester. With only two rain-ravaged days to campaign, supporters of the plan resorted to a limited e-mail campaign to get the word out on the proposal, which would pull an estimated $1.2 to $1.4 million from student pocketbooks. We asked our columnists, "Was ASUA too quick to the draw? How should students vote on the referendum?"

Brett Berry columnist

Send a message by not voting

So apparently, ASUA thinks our university needs to have another charge for students via the activity fee. I mean, how else can you explain the speediness - or should I say, "hastiness" - of the sudden election being put to the students? Who cares that there is no real planned timeline in place or that most students know little to nothing about it? Apparently, there's no reason to educate the student population on the topic.

ASUA President J.P. Benedict has said, "A student will generally be in favor or not in favor initially," in regard to the fee.

Wow, how deep. You mean someone generally has an opinion on a subject when asked about it? I can see why he's smart enough to be student body president.

Benedict also said, "Students aren't going to need days to figure this out." The problem is that students have not been given the information that would take "days" to think about.

Because of this lack of time and knowledge, no student should even vote on the activity fee. Why should they be asked to vote when they haven't been given the chance to make an informed decision? Send a message to ASUA and to the Arizona Board of Regents with a zero-voter turnout.

Brett Berry is a regional development sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Tim Belshe columnist

I've got three words for you ...

This proposal is bad on so many levels.

First, the fee is a bad idea to begin with. ASUA wants to charge everyone a considerable fee for a program that only a small portion of students will likely benefit from. It justifies this by saying that the fee is refundable. Let's do this: Have ASUA collect the fee from everyone who wants in on the program and leave the rest of us out of it.

Then, there's the blatantly reckless fashion in which ASUA has gone about implementing this fee. It has forced a vote with only two working days' notice. No reasonable person - even someone with only the bare minimum of intelligence required to be an ASUA senator - could possibly think that's enough time to have a public debate or even let people educate themselves on the issue.

This is all to say nothing of ASUA's attitude toward the student body during this process. ASUA President J.P. Benedict said that the main question in our minds should be "Do you want to bring entertainment to campus or don't you?" That's roughly equivalent to a pro-lifer asking someone, "Do you support killing babies?"

In short, this whole situation can leave you with only three words: "What the hell?"

Tim Belshe is a systems engineering junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Susan Bonicillo columnist

Use the money to save the mountain lion instead

I don't like being patronized; certainly, no one else does either. Yet that's exactly how we are being treated by activity fee organizers.

In essence, ASUA President J.P. Benedict's statements paint the student body as little more than chief examples of the heedlessness of impetuous youth.

However, students on campus aren't as unmindful of the issues as Benedict believes.

There is a lot riding on this election. This fee has the capacity to generate more than $1 million that will be managed by an as-of-yet undesignated student committee. To allocate that amount of money to anyone, especially to the inexperienced hands of college students, shows a great deal of irresponsibility.

Organizers see the fee as a step to bringing more entertainment to campus. However, this simplistic rationale trivializes the gravity of the situation. This is not only a matter of money, but it also points to the many ways that ASUA and other student committees use student apathy as a tool to pass any sort of legislation without opposition. Voting "no" on this fee will send the message that students will no longer tolerate being treated like sheep by their elected student officials.

Susan Bonicillo is a sophomore majoring in English. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Sabrina Noble columnist

J.P. - do more than just smile

Of the surprise fee election, ASUA President J.P. Benedict says: "A student will generally be in favor or not in favor initially. Students aren't going to need days and days to figure this out."

Well J.P., here's the thing: Logic öö as well as student leaders öö suggest that this is one of those cases when knowledge and/or competence on your part would be helpful. Smiling just isn't going to cut it this time.

It makes sense that you're annoyed with our petty questions about how you'll use our $1.2 million; you must be pretty tense lately, what with graduation coming up and you still needing to do something in office aside from wearing ties. Leaving legacies is tricky business, especially at the last second.

Instead of expecting the student body to take one for the team, you should look up contact information for the Student Activity Fee Committee and the Bursar's Office. Make a few calls; introduce yourself. It'll be easy - just tell them your family members have been student leaders here for generations. That's sure to open a few doors. While you're at it, draft a letter to the regents explaining why you defied their recommendation that students have more time for informed discussion before being directed to the polls.

Meanwhile, if we overly-inquisitive students vote at all öö which I do not recommend öö we should soundly defeat the student fee.

Sabrina Noble is a senior majoring in English and creative writing. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Jason Poreda columnist

A "no" is the only way to go

Nothing would please me more than seeing this fee back on the drawing board. The only way that can happen is if students vote "no" on the fee during these three days. I've told so many people this semester that this fee could be a really good thing for our campus, but it needs time - a lot of time. You can't just throw something of this magnitude together at the last minute and call it "good to go." Anybody who thinks that all the legwork has already been done needs to have his or her head examined.

Having the fee fail is the only way to ensure that we hold off this half-done proposal until a time where it might actually work. There is absolutely no reason why it can't wait until next year. Don't let them fool you; it's not as though this proposal has a time bomb attached that will explode if they don't push it through this year.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want over $1 million of student money to be treated like a party favor that the student government gets just for showing up and suggesting the idea.

Let ASUA know that you won't stand for this kind of thing and vote a big "no."

Jason Poreda is a political science and communication senior who voted "no." He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Daniel Scarpinato columnist

A biased election

Even if so-called "student leaders" manage to convince enough students to vote for the activity fee, which is highly doubtful, the election will be tangled in scandal.

What's so scandalous? Sen. Sara Birnbaum assured a roomful of attendees at Wednesday's senate meeting that the election would be run objectively and that literature would be written in an informative manner.

Well, with all due respect, have you seen the fliers, Sara? The collaborations board is obviously running a promotional campaign for the fee.

If the board really wanted to be informative, it would have published something with the arguments for and against the proposal, just like election information is done in real life. Still, that seems like it's more the responsibility of the group running the election, ASUA, which should not be taking sides in the matter - just facilitating the process.

But this isn't real life; it's the fantasy world of ASUA.

See, the fee is a good idea. Not promoting a fair, straightforward election is immoral and unjustifiable. It is also a striking and unfortunate shift from ASUA President J.P. Benedict's opened-door, student-centered administration.

It's scary enough that this election is being run so illogically and subjectively. But what's worse is that these closed-government, debate-unfriendly students most likely have hopes of being our future elected representatives in real-world politics, not just on the third floor of the Student Union Memorial Center.

Daniel Scarpinato is editor of The Desert Yearbook and a former Daily Wildcat editor in chief. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.