While the sidewalks around campus are littered with both leaves and chalking from students asking for your vote in the current Associated Students of Madison election, there is also a referendum on the ballot. We ask that you vote "no" on this question.

The referendum would prohibit the Student Services Finance Committee from distributing auxiliary funds to certain university services — including the student unions, University Health Services and UW Recreational Sports — that do not provide all of their employees with a guaranteed "living wage."

While this board has not always been in agreement with ASM, we agree with them on this issue and do not endorse this referendum for an array of reasons.

This referendum was placed on the ballot in bad faith. The initiative was submitted at the last minute for the Oct. 11-13 election, and with this move, the Student Labor Action Coalition — the group who introduced the referendum on the ASM ballot — allowed for no discussion or debate on the referendum before allowing the question to be presented to UW students.

The action of the SLAC also demonstrates their limited knowledge of SSFC and an attempt to limit SSFC's ability to do its job. Though the referendum, if passed, would forbid SSFC from distributing funds to organizations receiving non-allocable segregated fees, SSFC does not determine the allocation of such funds.

Finally, the referendum would not allow SSFC to review the budgets of organizations receiving non-allocable fees. Although these budgets are determined by the chancellor, students have an advisory role in these budgets, as SSFC can look at the budgets and make suggestions to Chancellor Wiley. If passed, this referendum would effectively shut SSFC out of their shared-governance role in the student-fee-distribution process.

The intent of the referendum can be debated later. But, for now, we believe the best thing for UW students is to vote "no" on this question.