 "Photo: Rob Strong")
With more than two-thirds of the vote, the student body passed a referendum Wednesday to build a Student Activities Center next to Gregory Gym on the east side of campus pending final approval by the UT System Board of Regents.
"We are ecstatic," said Dan Paschal, Student Government executive director and project manager for the center, of the two-thirds margin.
The center will make space for leadership and organization facilities and provide additional academic space, according to a student-body proposal.
The project is estimated to cost $51 million and set to open between fall 2010 and fall 2012, Paschal said. The funding will come from students, raising tuition by a maximum of $65 per semester, but Paschal said he hopes other resources, such as alumni, will contribute.
Paschal said before the referendum was passed, it was hard to ask alumni or administrators to contribute.
"Their first question they asked was, 'Does the student body want the center?'" he said.
Omar Ochoa, SG president and advocate of the center, said he was happy with the results.
"This is a win for everyone," he said.
Colin Kalmbacher, a pre-journalism sophomore who ran for two-year-at-large representative on the Enough ticket, said the referendum was just a "blank check for RecSports." Enough opposed the platform.
"We were given a false sense of autonomy," Kalmbacher said. "The SAC was going to be built no matter what. I think it's eerie that people are willing to throw their money away like that."
A referendum regarding University-imposed penalties for use and possession of marijuana also passed with 64 percent of the vote. The referendum asks UT officials to soften the penalties for on-campus marijuana use and possession, said Judie Niskala, UT campus coordinator for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, also known as SAFER, Texas, a nonprofit organization that worked to get the referendum on the ballot because it believes that marijuana is a less dangerous drug than alcohol.
"Drinking leads to a lot of dangerous behavior," Niskala said. "It has led to deaths on the University campus, and marijuana is a safer alternative."
Niskala said UT was targeted by SAFER Choice to host the referendum because of its size and "liberal location."
"The students definitely realized that marijuana is a safer alternative to alcohol, and they used their voices to express that," Niskala said.
JJ Hermes, an associate editor at The Daily Texan, won the editor position with 53 percent of the vote. He said his main goal is to keep the Opinion Page's focus "sharp on University issues."
Hermes also said he would like to add a science beat to the paper.
The editor is in charge of the Opinion Page, but also acts as the "public face of the paper," said A.J. Bauer, Daily Texan editor. Bauer said a big part of the editor's job is to reach out to communities who feel underrepresented in the paper.
"Students are responsible for everything at the Texan," he said. "It's this really great place for students to hone their journalistic skills."
The race for editor has not come between two in-house staff members since 2002, when Jason Hunter ran against Jesse Harris. Hermes said this race was difficult because he ran against a friend, Nikki Buskey.
Hermes said Buskey "went hard" and put a lot of heart into the campaign.
"[Losing] was difficult because I wasn't quite prepared," Buskey said. "But JJ will be a great editor."
Matt Reyes was elected Student Event Center president with 53 percent of the vote. As president, his job will be to facilitate meetings, create agendas and initiate discussions, according to the SEC Web site.
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