Voters in this week’s undergraduate Student Association (SA) elections overwhelmingly voted to maintain the mandatory $109 Student Activity Fee that funds the SA and its clubs.
1,200 students voted in the referendum. 865 – 72.1% – voted to keep the fee mandatory, while 335 – 27.9% – voted to make it voluntary.
That 1,200-student turnout represents 5.8% of UB’s 20,761 undergraduate students — an increase from last year’s 941 voters, but a decline from past fee referenda. In 2022, when the fee was last up for a vote, 1,820 students voted, and in the 2021 referendum, 2,390 students voted.
Students have approved the mandatory fee by wide margins in every referendum since 2020, when 54.4% of voters chose a voluntary fee. That decision was followed by an April 2021 referendum, in which more than 75% of voters opted for a mandatory fee. The voluntary fee never took effect.
SA leaders then and now said the mandatory fee, which is paid by all undergraduate students, is critical to keep SA running. They argued that a voluntary fee would leave the SA without the money it needs to fund clubs and activities on campus.
In addition to approving the mandatory fee, students this year elected seven senators to fill 12 open SA Senate seats.
TJ Ledwith, Cole DeVantier, Joseph Pawelczyk and Jack Koscinski will join the Senate for the first time, and Kayla Yan, Benjamin Lau and Gavin Krauciunas will return. The SA Executive Committee appointed Amadou Dieng, Riya Gaikwad, Laibah Ahmed, Dilasha Thapa and Krithik Madisetty to fill the five remaining vacancies.
The SA Senate meets every other Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Student Union room 378.
Sol Hauser is a former senior news editor and can be reached at sol.hauser@ubspectrum.com
The news desk can be reached at news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
