Word: referendum
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...absurdity of the EAC-sponsored referendum has nothing to do with the sentiment behind its proposition: Encouraging environmental awareness about potentially dangerous gases is a good thing. However, the EAC has failed to present a ballot detailed enough to be supportable...
...Among all the information rallied to their cause, supporters of the referendum did not include any cost estimate (read: an idea of what Harvard will have to sacrifice in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions). The ballot question, as it was first proposed, clearly stated, however, that a “yes” vote on the EAC’s referendum means that the student “recognize[s] that this will take sacrifice and innovation from across the FAS community, and pledge[s] to do [his/her] part to realize these reductions while [he/she is] at Harvard...
...will be is still anyone’s guess. It could be the cost of new windows (unlikely) or a multi-million dollar, multi-pronged effort by the entire University (likely). Thus, by forcing students to make a choice without the relevant costs, and insisting that the referendum contain specific propositions that will have specific costs to implement, the environmentalists have made a “yes” vote on their own referendum illogical; support for an undefined sacrifice is not much of a statement...
...Even worse, when questioned about the costs, the EAC has reminded students that the referendum is non-binding, and thus won’t necessarily incur any costs since it will have no definite effect on FAS’ operations. If Harvard finds the cost to be too expensive or too inconvenient, then it seems that the EAC would settle for eight percent reductions, or maybe six percent. They would settle for any outcome as long as Harvard starts moving, and moving publicly. Yet if the EAC deems the vote unlikely to achieve the goal stated on the referendum...
...allow him to run again in 2012. He also says he could create a single party out of the many that support him. The president denied last week that such reforms pointed to increasing authoritarianism, and assured that any constitutional reform would have to pass through a national referendum. "This isn't a dictatorship," he said. "It's democracy...