Democracy (noun, di-MOK-ruh-see): government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. (Random House unabridged dictionary)

Now that we have the definition out of the way, it’s time to make sure we’re all on the same page and agree that here at Binghamton University, our student government, in its ideal, acts as a democracy. Agreed? Good.

Here at BU, the people (students) have spoken, and spoken in favor of financially supporting the New York Public Interest Research group to the tune of around $5 per student per semester, for a total of just over $100,000 (See Page 1).

Regardless of our personal feelings on it (for the record, we’re thrilled) or more importantly, the personal feelings of the student representatives sitting on the Student Assembly, the wishes of a majority of the students who chose to exercise their democratic ability to affect policy are now known and must be followed.

Because that’s how a democracy works, and those are the principles upon which this nation is founded ‘ just ask Al Gore (ha ha, no, we kid!).

Again, we aren’t hiding the fact that we’re pleased with the results of the referendum decision ‘ that 52 percent of voters supported NYPIRG ‘ and think it’s great that the students are supporting an organization that so clearly and tirelessly works on their behalf.

NYPIRG’s sole purpose as an organization is to support student interests and lobby on their behalf in Albany, while locally taking on important student issues at a grassroots level and offering opportunities for every student to build leadership and activism skills.

Not to mention that fact that, regardless of what you may have heard from electioneering propaganda, more money for NYPIRG does not mean less money for student groups, or take money out of anyone else’s pocket. What the referendum stated was that you, the students, were willing to give an extra $10 a year of your money to support NYPIRG.

Considering that’s roughly the equivalent to two beers at the Ale House, we think it’s a damn good investment on behalf of the students.

So now that our democratic elections have been finally carried out and the wishes of the student body are known, we here at Pipe Dream look forward to watching the SA carry out those wishes when their annual budget hearing comes up next week.

After all, ignoring the results of an election isn’t something we’d ever see in a nation ‘ or student government ‘ founded on democratic ideals. An elected government directly ignoring the results of a vote would be something you’d expect to see in Soviet Russia or Mussolini’s fascist Italy, not in an institution of higher learning in the greatest democratic nation in the world.

So we have nothing to worry about, right?