Candidates for student body president, vice presidents and senators will not be the only choices on the ballot this week. Also on the ballot will be a referendum to change the funding mechanism for the Arizona Students Association.

The ASA is the state's largest student lobbying organization, representing 101,000 students in the state's public universities since 1974. This group, which includes members of the University of Arizona student body, lobbies such groups as the Arizona Boa rd of Regents, the Arizona Legislature and the United States Congress on issues such as tuition, university budgets and financial aid.

Some examples of ASA at work include the establishment of a voting regent position on the Arizona Board of Regents; the passage of the AFAT Scholarship Program which has paid out $8 million in scholarships since 1989-90; the passage of the ASPIRE Scholar ship Program, which will pay in-state college tuition of at-risk third- graders in coming centuries, keeping in-state tuition in the state at the sixth-lowest in the nation; lobbying effectively for increased university funding; lobbying the U.S. Congress to preserve Federal Financial Aid; and conducting the Students Are Voting Everywhere campaign, which has registered nearly 50,000 students since 1987.

The current problem is ASA is funded by a group it is lobbying: the Board of Regents. This is a conflict of interest for the ASA, and has been for the past 22 years.

In California, a court ruled the California Student Association to be in a conflict of interest with its Board of Regents because it was lobbying a group that funded it. There are fears in ASA that if it does not become independent, a court case could be ensuing.

ASA currently gets a budget of $105,000, $35,000 from each of the three state universities, said ASA Task Force director Greg Gemson. This means each University of Arizona student pays one dollar to ASA through his or her tuition.

A change is needed, and the referendum presented Tuesday and Wednesday asks for that change. It asks students to allow ASA to become an independently funded group through a refundable $1 per semester fee added to a students' university bill. This would no t only allow ASA to be separately funded, but also give it more funding.

Gemson said a fraction of a dollar amount could not be put on the bill, though ASA did look into trying to get a 50- or 75-cent amount per semester.

The total amount of money the ASA gets from the UA currently is $35,000 a year. Through this new program, it would double to $70,000.

ASA deserves to be separate and gain more funding. This group directs its attention towards students' needs and gives students the chance to be empowered at our state and local governments. Gemson said ASA has had to cut some programs because it is sticki ng to its current budget. ASA has not asked the Board of Regents for more funds in three years.

If it does receive more funding, then it could widen its efforts. Of course, some of the funding would have to go to refunding the fee for students who did not want to pay it. But from there, ASA could use it to give more outreach in registering students to vote, making more trips to Washington to lobby Congress and to help fund the currently unfunded ASPIRE bill.

If this referendum is not passed, then there could be many directions for ASA. It could exist in its current form, it could face the same problems as the CSA or it could lose its funding from the Board of Regents because of this vote being seen as one of no confidence in ASA.

The UA is the first of the three state universities to vote on the referendum. We need to tell the Board of Regents, the state of Arizona and our fellow universities that we have confidence in a group working for the students.

Vote yes to give ASA independent funding.

Keith Allen is a journalism senior and Wildcat opinions editor.