Whereas, a referendum to increase ASUCI fees incrementally over the next five years to $48 per quarter [1] per full-time student was passed by a small percentage of undergraduate UCI students after quorum had been lowered due to low voter turnout in the past, and;

Whereas, Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine focuses more on the University of California Student Association (UCSA) and not the UC Irvine undergraduate population, and;

Whereas, UCI undergraduate students are required to pay ASUCI fees with the expectation that ASUCI will prioritize them over an outside organization that is locked in groupthink, and;

Whereas, some students who challenge ASUCI groupthink are met with hostility, bullying, discrimination, and the incitement of prejudice to censor the students’ dissenting views; they’re forced to fund an organization that actively marginalizes them, often under the guise of political correctness and cultural sensitivity, and;

Whereas, it’s been expressed that student government has no need to meet the needs of the students who pay them as long as fees are mandatory, and;

Whereas, taxation without representation is theft, and;

Whereas, student government promotes one narrative and doesn’t offer platforms for different ideas without looking at them from the lenses of deep prejudice and racism; student fees fund workshops, conferences, and training sessions that are foster groupthink and its ill effects, and;

Whereas, student government is intellectually harming the UCI undergraduate student population with its groupthink mentality, single-narrative Marxist approaches to complex real-world issues, and it’s blind obedience to UCSA, an organization that will cause more harm to minorities than good.

Therefore let it be resolved that during the Spring Election Cycle, the undergraduate student body will be allowed to vote on whether or not ASUCI fees should continue to be mandatory; the sample ballot referendum is below:

A vote “no” will keep ASUCI fees mandatory for full-time UC Irvine undergraduates.

A vote “yes” will make ASUCI fees voluntary or full-time UC Irvine undergraduates

If this legislation passes, students can opt out of paying ASUCI frees when enrolling and while paying registration fees at the start of each quarter.  There will be no refunds offered after ASUCI fees have been processed. Students who don’t pay the fee will have to pay full price for events aimed towards the UCI undergraduate community. They will not receive any ASUCI-funded “benefits” offered through ASUCI funds without making a payment through their Zot account for the service. They will be regarded by student government as though they are extension students or post-bac students.

The intention of this referendum is allow students who’ve experienced covert discrimination and who’ve been actively marginalized by student government to opt out of funding their oppressor. This ideally will inspire government to reach out to these students in order to boost the overall funding of student government, break the groupthink, and make UCI a campus that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of thought instead of groupthink.

It’s also hoped that by allowing ASUCI fees to be optional will stop the allegedly common practice of students joining student government solely to control student government and important committees in student government to satisfy the legislative and financial interests of their clubs and club affiliates without consequence; now student government leaders and elected representatives will need to actually work for the undergraduate population and make ASUCI fees work for students in congruence with promoting free speech, new ideas, and new knowledge, not more censorship.

[1] https://asuci.uci.edu/srsi2017/fee-breakdown/