Last Thursday, the Judiciary Council (JC) held a hearing for the case of McDonald et al. v. AAS. The JC found in favor of the AAS. JC members Erin Mariano '06, Sachin Dhawan '05E and Laura Kim '06 were in the majority. Stuart Landesberg '07 and Thomas Scott '07 dissented.
In his appeal, McDonald claimed that students received insufficient information about the allocations in the wording of the referendum. However, the majority indicated that interested students could have discovered this information for themselves. "Information is readily available for their consumption," they wrote.
The majority also addressed McDonald's concern that an inadequate number of students voted and that voters had no opportunity to express comments regarding the referendum.
"Bylaw V., F. does not mandate a minimum proportion of student participation in order to certify the legitimacy of an election," they wrote. The majority also explained that the senate was not required to provide any room for commentary regarding the referendum.
Landesberg and Scott echoed McDonald's fear that the line-itemization of the referendum ballot might have confused voters. "Because of the way that the ballot was worded, ... allotting zero dollars to food and zero dollars to party favors, some students may have been misguided in making their decisions," they wrote in their dissent.
They also wrote that since there was no room for voters to express their concerns on the ballot, it was possible that the voter was not sure for what he or she was voting. "One could not tell ... if he was voting for a reallocation of the funds or if he was voting for no funding for the formal at all," they continued.
Both McDonald and the dissenting members of the JC panel hoped that the appeal would cultivate a requirement ensuring that the wording of ballots was as clear as possible. "We need to establish that campus votes need to be clearer in order to measure the true feeling of the community ... rather than allowing the breech in spirit to go unretracted," wrote Landsberg and Scott.
Roz Foster '05, chair of the spring formal committee, was pleased with the result of the referendum. "With the approval of the money out of the way, it is my hope that the Spring Formal committee will be able to proceed with planning a great event for the entire campus."
Although his appeal failed, McDonald is glad the formal was funded. "What it comes down to is that my criticisms are relevant enough for the Constitution to be amended in the future," he said. "The fact that the majority voted for the formal doesn't change the validity of my appeal, but it could change how it was handled. Regardless, my main aim was to have a formal, and that's what we're getting."
Foster hopes funding for future formals will come from external sources. "It is my hope that there can be some other way to fund the formal ... without having to go to a student vote each year, especially since I believe so many people enjoy the atmosphere created by such a large event," she said.
In the referendum, students also passed an amendment to the AAS Constitution. The amendment changes the Constitution so that the AAS election committee is no longer required to set up computers for students to vote in AAS-sponsored elections in Valentine Dining Hall. The amendment was made to address logistical concerns.