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A referendum on a proposed "green" fee will likely appear on the ballot for student government elections next month, the election commissioner said Monday.

The Undergraduate Student Government office received more than the required 1,600 signatures in support of including the referendum, said John Teresi, the student charged with overseeing this year's election. Teresi said the election commission would finish looking over the petitions today, but the decision will not be made official until after a pre-election meeting Wednesday.

"With the numbers I have, it looks like it should be sufficient," Teresi said.

The referendum will ask students whether they support paying a $10 per semester fee that would fund on-campus renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainability projects and research.

The fee is projected to bring in more than $300,000 each year. It is part of a larger plan drafted by students and staff, titled Project Eco-Dawgs, that aims to reduce the university's contribution to global warming and make the campus more sustainable.

Jon Dyer, co-coordinator for the project, said students and faculty helped collect about 2,500 signatures in support of the referendum.

Dyer said the group collected 900 extra names in part as a precaution in case the validity of any of the signatures is challenged. But the extra petitioning also gave the group a chance to test its capacity and to have more face-to-face conversations with students about the fee, he said.

"I think it makes a strong statement," Dyer said.

If the referendum indicates there is student support for the new fee, Dyer said his group would present the idea to the SIU Board of Trustees at its April 10 meeting.

At the same meeting, Dyer said the group would propose the board mandate all future construction and renovation projects at SIUC earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

The LEED rating system is the "nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings," according to U.S. Green Building Council.

Making buildings LEED certified is one way in which the "green" fee revenue could be spent, Dyer said. It typically costs an additional 2 percent on construction costs to certify a building, Dyer said.

For a project such as the planned student services building, which is projected to cost $25 million, the certification would amount to $500,000.

"We're hoping to with the referendum passing get some of those other policies passed for its usage," Dyer said.

The Project Eco-Dawgs proposal indicates the fee money could also pay for wind turbine projects at SIUC's University Farms and environmental campus and community events.

Dyer said under the proposal, all expenditures would have to be approved by a nine-member funding committee that includes six students.

"So it's in student control," he said.

Joe Crawford can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 254 or jcrawford@siude.com.

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