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Every spring, UC Santa Cruz conducts a consolidated election for undergraduate and graduate students. This year, the ballot will consist of three components: referendum measures that propose new student fees or fee increases, undergraduate student government elections for the Student Union Assembly (SUA), and an opinion poll put out by the Committee on Educational Policy.

For a referendum measure to pass, it requires a minimum of 25 percent of the registered voting on the measures to be valid. In addition, of those 25 percent who vote, a majority (at least one vote over 50 percent) of a minimum voting pool has to approve the measure. SUA elections are determined by a majority vote.

All undergraduate and graduate students who are registered by the third week of spring quarter are eligible to vote. Students can vote online at elections.ucsc.edu, starting at 12 a.m. May 14 and ending 11:59 p.m. May 21.

Additional measure and candidate information can be found at elections.ucsc.edu. Election results will be available online by June 5. Election ballots are available in alternative formats: contact elections coordinator Lucy Rojas at (831) 459-1676 or e-mail her at larojas@ucsc.edu.

*Measure 34*: _Organization_: Student media, which consists of student-run television, print publications, the campus radio station and 40-plus other organizations — including Student Cable Television (SCTV Channel 28), City on a Hill Press, KZSC 88.1 FM, Fish Rap Live!, The Project, Chinquapin, Black African Voice, La Revista/Las Girlfriends, Big Q, Eyecandy, Rainbow TV, Third World and Native American Students (TWANAS), Barn TV, and Banana Slug News.

_Referendum_: Measure 34 asks for $4.14 per undergraduate student, per quarter to provide funding for the advisory positions that support the operations of student media organizations beginning in fall 2008.

_Background_: In recent years, UCSC student media has grown 300 percent in student involvement and 400 percent in the number of student media organizations, now comprising over 900 students and 40 organizations. On top of funding being cut by 35 percent, the temporary funding for SCTV advisers will end May 31, 2008, leaving fewer than three full-time permanent advisers who are responsible for leadership training, advocacy in First Amendment rights, facilities and equipment, compliance in campus policies and transactions, and many additional integral support and advising needs. Without funding, several student media organizations — including SCTV — will be forced to shut down and access to resources and advisers will decrease throughout the rest of student media.

_Endorsements_: SCTV, KZSC, City on a Hill Press, Fish Rap Live!, La Revista/Las Girlfriends, Banana Slug News, Rainbow TV, The Big Q, Kinetic Poetics Project, El Centro (Latino/Chicano Resource Center), UCSC Athletic Commission, Community Service Documentation Project, Yellowt, Film Production Coalition, Leviathan, Women’s Center, The Lionel Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, UCSC Dance Team, Chinquapin, Barnstorm, Barn TV, Queer Fashion Show (QFS), Eyecandy Film Journal, Rapt, Kresge Town Krier, Moxie Production Group.

*Measure 35*: _Organization_: Cowell Student Health Center, the main health services facility for UCSC students.

_Referendum_: Measure 35 asks for a new temporary undergraduate and graduate fee of $5.20 per quarter, per student to purchase and implement green materials and practices for the Cowell Student Health Center, in order to obtain the U.S. Green Building Counsel (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “Silver” certification. Fees will be implemented the first full quarter after the Cowell Student Health Center receives a USGBC LEED “Silver” certification, estimated to be complete in fall 2009.

_Background_: The USGBC LEED “Silver” certification is one of the four levels in which the USGBC, a nonprofit organization, uses a nationally accepted rating system for green construction. It uses a point system to measure sustainability in the design, construction and operation of green buildings.

In spring 2005 campus elections, student referendum Measure 18: Student Health Center Facilities Improvement Fee was passed to fund the renovation and expansion of the Student Health Center. However, Measure 18 did not include funding for resources needed to obtain the USGBC LEED “Silver” Certification.

If Measure 35 passes, the Cowell Student Health Center would become the first USGBC LEED “Silver” certified facility on the Santa Cruz campus. Any surplus revenues would create a “green reserve fund” to incorporate green building design for other student-fee-funded facilities such as the bookstore, Student Union, Lionel Cantú Queer Center, and Cardiff House.

_Endorsements_: Student Environmental Center, Student Health Advisory Committee, Cowell Student Health Center, Latino Student Business Association, CALPIRG.

*Measure 36*: _Organization_: The Global Information Internship Program (GIIP), an innovative digital service learning program created by students and faculty at UCSC and managed by GIIP Fellows.

_Referendum_: Measure 37 asks for a new undergraduate fee of $1.33 per quarter, per student beginning fall 2008 to help support student internships by funding student interns’ travel and health insurance costs and part of the staffing cost required to place GIIP student interns globally and locally with community organizations.

In addition, it would also provide form financial assistance to low-income students unable to participate in GIIP because of financial constraints and increase number of GIIP participants from 100 to 150, and the number of internships from 20 to 40 annually.

_Background_: Every year, at least 100 UCSC students participate in GIIP classes and trainings, where they learn technological skills such as computing, databases, web design, and digital entrepreneurial skills. Through internships, GIIP participants use their knowledge to assist local, national and international civil society and community groups in developing their info-structures. Previously, these internships were supported by a grant from the Compton Foundation, but those funds have run out.

_Endorsements_: Students Together Opposing Poverty (STOP); Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies (CGIRS).