Editor’s Note: This article was updated on 4/11/2025 for clarification regarding the referendum turnout rate and the process of a referendum to be placed on the ballot.
The ballot for this spring’s ASUCI elections includes three referendums. Two will impact undergraduate students, all of which will be effective starting in fall 2025.
In student government, a referendum is a student-proposed measure that concerns a change in student fees to benefit a particular area of student life. Whether they are passed depends on participating students’ votes. An undergraduate student fee referendum must first be validated with at least a 20% turnout rate as a whole, and 60% of all students who cast a ballot must vote in favor of the referendum for it to pass. This year, after UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman submitted a request to change the threshold to the UC Office of the President, the office offered a one time adjustment of the minimum threshold to be 10%. The request was approved and implemented, meaning all referendums that passes with over a 10% turnout rate but under 20% must be reaffirmed by the end of its third year with a 20% turnout. Referendums that pass with a 20% turnout will not need to be reaffirmed and will not expire until it’s 30th year.
The Meet the Moment Referendum seeks to create a $180-per-quarter undergraduate fee that would contribute to UCI’s NCAA sports program and the potential addition of an NCAA women’s beach volleyball team. The referendum would fund UCI concerts, spiritual rallies and athletic events as well as UCI’s NCAA Division I sports. If passed, the fee would increase by $10 each quarter starting fall 2026 until it reaches $220 per quarter.
The New University Support Student Journalism Student Fee Referendum is the second student fee referendum that will affect only undergraduate students. If passed, the referendum would add a $2-per-quarter fee in support of New University, UCI’s student newspaper. The fee would support biweekly print publication of the newspaper as well as fund resources in the New University’s publication of articles, videos and photos. Starting fall 2030, it will also increase each year by a rate determined by the California Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The last referendum on the ballot applies only to graduate students and would add a $7 fee issued each quarter in support of the Basic Needs Center, which offers resources such as a campus food pantry, emergency housing and financial support. The fee would increase annually starting in fall 2026 based on the California CPI.
For every new fee added since 2006, at least 25% — as required by UC policy — must be returned to UCI’s Financial Aid Office to ensure that these increases are being matched in the financial aid packages students receive. This is known as the “return-to-aid” requirement, which is set at exactly 25% for the two undergraduate student fee referendums and 33% for the graduate referendum.
To be placed on the ballot, a referendum proposal is submitted and reviewed by Student Government Student Media, then the UC Office of the President and their legal counsel, then the Student Fee Advisory Committee and finally to the ASUCI Senate or AGS Council. The Student Fee Advisory Committee ensures that the referendum’s language is coherent. For a referendum to be eligible for review, it must be student-led.
Fifth-year political science student and ASUCI Elections Commissioner Jun Jang has been working with a team of four deputy election commissioners to mobilize students to vote in this spring’s elections. These efforts have included tabling on Ring Road, visiting classrooms to briefly encourage students to participate and increasing their social media presence.
Aside from the direct impact on student fees, Jang said another reason students should vote on the referendums is the influence it may have on university administrators.
“If more students turn out and more students say no to a fee, for example — right — then departments would likely see, ‘Oh, this is something that very isn’t favorable from the student body,’” Jang told New University. “Or, alternatively, if there’s a huge, massive turnout — 30% of students voting and 90% of them vote yes — then it’s also a signal to administrators.”
Voting on the referendums will close at 5 p.m. April 18. Election packets became available online Feb 27.
Mariam Farag is a Features Staff Writer. She can be reached at msfarag@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon and Jaheem Conley
