Word: referendums
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...beginning to pass measures on student services instead of sweatshops in the third world. Yet the council already thinks it can handle more than twice the budget it has now—and, somehow, council insiders convinced the student body to go along with the plan in an April referendum. After a contentious campaign, undergraduates voted to increase the Student Activities Fee—an optional termbill charge that makes up the bulk of the council’s revenue—by an unprecedented and excessive 114 percent. Undergraduate voters refused, however, to make the fee mandatory on student...
From the outset, the campaign to raise the termbill fee seemed ill-conceived and hastily thought out. Not a single council presidential candidate, campaigning merely months before the termbill referendum, ever hinted at a fee hike; and the initial proposal lacked any clearly defined plan as to how the council would handle a dramatically increased budget. Nevertheless, Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 and a very devoted group of representatives within his ranks set out on a seemingly surreptitious route of ramming the proposed bill through, without ever consulting the student body...
...Faculty Council’s final meeting of this academic year, it accepted Mahan’s fee hike—but only after he offered it as a two-part increase to take place over the next couple of years, an option not mentioned on the referendum. Granted, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 vouched for Mahan’s move, saying that it was unlikely that the Faculty Council would have agreed to such an excessive increase. It would seem, however, that this only demonstrates the Faculty’s warranted apprehension towards...
...Neither was George W. Bush. In a move that shook the island, Bush, during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's first-ever visit to the White House in December, appeared to side with Beijing by publicly dressing down Chen, signaling that Taiwan's President should not move ahead with the referendum. "The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo," said Bush-a position, he added, the U.S. "opposes." Then last month, the Bush Administration dropped the Washington-based chairwoman of the AIT, Therese Shaheen...
...Still, because of his brinkmanship, Chen has had a strained relationship with Washington. Bilateral ties hit a low last year, when Chen stunned the White House by declaring at a presidential campaign rally in Taiwan that he intended to use powers afforded him under a new referendum law to hold a popular vote to "protect our country's sovereignty." Many interpreted that to mean Chen was flirting with the idea of a referendum on independence-an action that China has consistently warned will lead to war. The next day, according to one U.S. source, a furious Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary...