Student Council voted Wednesday to place a referendum concerning the Memorial Union Reinvestment Project’s student theater lounge on the 2011 ASM fall election ballot in an effort to collect student opinion on the renovation.

The referendum was introduced by Rep. Andrew Bulovsky as a way to give students a chance to voice opinions on the subject of the student theater lounge portion of the reinvestment project.

Bulovsky emphasized that regardless of student opinion, having the referendum on the ballot does not necessarily affect the project.

He said a plausible way it would affect the project is if there were an overwhelming amount of students against the project, as it would make the Wisconsin Union Directorate look bad should they continue without change.

“This really should not be contentious,” Bulovsky said. “It would simply be placed on the ballot in order for students to voice possible concerns.”

Bulovsky also said he believes more students vote on the fall ballot then attend student input sessions held by the Union, making it a more effective way to gauge opinion.

Several members brought up the possibility of the referendum’s inclusion on the ballot causing more students to vote.

Rep. Justin Gerstner said more students would vote and he sees the referendum as giving students power.

The motion to vote on adding the referendum to the ballot originally failed.

The failed motion was then reconsidered, and the Associated Students of Madison entered a debate over the wording.

The referendum eventually passed 12-3, with 6 abstentions.

The referendum will go up for a second round of approval at next week’s meeting. If it does not pass through the second vote, it will not appear on the ballot.

Another referendum that was passed during Wednesday’s meeting proposed the eradication of one member of the student judiciary. The referendum must be voted on twice in order to make it on the fall ballot.

Having seven judiciaries instead of eight would benefit voting as well as make sure additional positions do not go un-utilized, according to Chief Justice Kathryn Fifield.

Contention abounded over a potential violation of an open meetings law as the referendum was both introduced and voted on the same meeting.

Rep. Nneka Akubeze said she did not like how voting on the referendum violated this law, especially when ASM had previously decided not to vote on the shared governance chair for the same reasons.

The motion to place the Student Judiciary Composition Constitutional Amendment carried. Council members asked for abstentions to be put on the record but Chair Allie Gardner refused to call for them.

During open forum, several design committee and WUD members discussed their opposition to the student theatre lounge referendum, stating it would affect the timeline of the renovation and cost millions of dollars to have plans redrawn.

These speakers also emphasized that no student segregated fees were funding the addition, but rather donations.

They also asked for the term “glass box” to be removed from the ballot as it had a negative connotation.

The amount of speakers caused Gardner to call several votes to extend open forum several times, making it last approximately two hours.

Council members voted to not pick a new shared governance chair and will decide during next week’s meeting.