Assembly To Frame Questions For College-Wide Referendum

The Student Assembly voted last night to go forward with the planning of a college-wide general referendum which would serve as an indicator of student opinion on various issues.

Committees will meet to frame possible questions and compile fact sheets expressing pros and cons of each issue they want to appear on the ballot before the assembly convenes November 30.

What You Got to Say?

The representatives will then decide which questions will be on the referendum, or to abandon the project. The motion passed also stipulated that any individual may propose a potential question.

Among the possible referendum issues are whether students are in favor of a campus pub, the question of the naming of the Kennedy School of Government library after Charles W. Engelhard, and the question of alternative meal plans.

"We have to be careful to distinguish between a referendum and an opinion poll," assembly representative Natasha Pearl '82 said yesterday. "We have to frame the questions so that the answers indicate an action to take," she added.

Samuel N. Levin '80, another assembly member, said last night he hopes a serious effort is taken to educate students on pertinent matters before the actual vote. "The administration doesn't care about the quantity of voters supporting an issue, but about the quality--their level of awareness," he said.

The assembly debated whether to hold the vote before or after Christmas vacation, but postponed a decision on that issue pending further discussion of the referendum.