The student activity fee was shot down last night with 56.6 percent of student voters opposing the $15 per semester charge.
More than 3,000 voted in the special election held over the past three days.
After the results were announced last night, student leaders said there should have been more time to educate students about the vote.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senate approved the activity fee referendum March 31, and the special election began on Monday, giving fee organizers only a few days to market the fee.
"I think they should have had it later," said Sen. Blake Buchanan. "We tried to have the elections four days later, and they should have done it right before the regents meeting on April 29th."
Sen. Ben Weiss said students likely did not support the fee because there was not enough time to educate them.
"I don't think a week more would have changed the results," he said. "But maybe two months more would have done much more."
Sen. Kartikeya Kejriwal said he was disappointed with the results, but that the senate should have given students more time between passing the referendum and the special election.
Buchanan said he believes students voted no on the fee because they were unhappy with the election process.
"The initial research said that students are in favor of it," he said.
ASUA President J.P. Benedict agreed a lot could have been done differently for the special election.
"The process was a little rushed," he said. "There should have been more time on every angle."
Benedict said the election staff should have played a strong role in the referendum, and the format of the elections should have been thought out more.
Sen. Matt Harris, who worked on the fee proposal, said he believes students would still like to increased entertainment on campus.
"Maybe it's too much, maybe they don't agree with the bylaws," Harris said. "The mistakes we made; we can fix those."
But student leaders agreed that, despite the lack of time, there was a strong voter turnout.
"I am definitely very happy with the voter turnout," said Greg Billings, president of the University Activities Board, who also worked on the fee proposal.
Sen. Sara Birnbaum said she was pleased students came out to vote because her job as a student leader is to offer students options and support their decision.
Some students who were against the fee said they voted against the rushed election, not the fee.
"I didn't know about it until we had to vote nay or yea," said Louis Shannon, an undeclared freshman.
Doug Hoeft, a freshman majoring in English and creative writing, said he was relieved the fee didn't pass.
He said he was told to vote on the fee but didn't even know what the fee was.
"It was out of the blue," he said.
Geoff White, an environmental science sophomore, said although he supported the fee, he was happy to hear it wasn't approved.
"The focus of the fee was going the wrong way," he said.
Nathan Pluke, a senior majoring in English, also said it was good the fee didn't pass.
"I feel like with the cost of tuition these days, students don't need fees," he said.
Pluke also said students wouldn't benefit from the fee because students don't know or don't attend activities that already do occur.
Buchanan said students probably voted no because of the process and not the fee itself, because earlier survey results showed support for the fee.
According to a survey conducted by FMR Associates earlier this semester, 85 percent of the students said they would possibly or definitely support the fee.
Benedict said he would have been doubtful of the results if the student body had approved the fee.
Biased advertising on the part of clubs and organizations would have diminished the credibility of the results if the fee had passed, he said.