The Nevada Sagebrush

University of Nevada, Reno undergraduate president Eli Reilly gets pizza at the Abolish ASUN festival on Friday. Although Reilly said he supports ASUN, he also said it’s important for discourse to take place on campus. Photo by thomas levine /Nevada Sagebrush.

Students petted ponies and jumped merrily in bounce houses; they scarfed down free pizza and took turns on a mechanical bull Monday – all in an act of protest.

As students enjoyed the festivities, they were given one thing to think about. It was their money that paid for the 191 boxes of pizza, the hours of bounce-house fun and the four barnyard animals that wandered around the student union lawn. And as students enjoyed the festivities, members of Students for Liberty reminded them that this was something the student government participates in almost every day.

The Abolish ASUN festival was held to educate students about frivolous spending in the student government with the goal of having attendees sign a petition to eliminate ASUN.

The event, which used about $3,500 of student fee money approved by ASUN, is the latest of many efforts Students for Liberty has hosted to draw attention to “ridiculous” spending by campus leaders.

ASUN is responsible for organizing and funding Campus Escort, programming, student publications such as the Brushfire and Insight, legal services, the bookstore, scholarship programs and one third of the performing arts budget.

Although ASUN President Eli Reilly attended the festival, he said he stands strongly behind ASUN because the university would not be able to afford the services that ASUN offers.

“There’s no money for it,” Reilly said. “There is no way to replace ASUN services.”

By holding the event in front of the Joe Crowley Student Union, members of Students for Liberty said they hoped to show students what ASUN allocates their fees to. In showing this, they said they hoped to persuade as many students as possible to sign a petition to eliminate ASUN.

“We had a great turnout,” Mary Hunton, president of Students for Liberty, said. “A lot of people (in favor of) us showed up, a lot of people who didn’t know us but jumped on board and we even had a few ASUN fans.”

With 700 signatures, Hunton said they still had work to do to finish the petition and get the online ballots validated. According to the ASUN Constitution, Students for Liberty would need to have 10 percent of the student body sign the petition for it to become a student ballot question. This year, Students for Liberty would need 1,231 signatures to get the question onto the 2011 ballot (this year’s deadline for ballot questions has already passed).  The ASUN Attorney General must also approve the petition in order for it to be placed on the ballot. The paper petition they circulated at the festival was approved; however, their online petition was not.

“We need to talk to the attorney general and find out whether these electronic signatures can be used for the petition,” Hunton said. “If we get enough people we can say ‘Look, people care. Will you really disregard them because it’s online?’”

If approved by the students in an election, the proposal would then need to go through the Board of Regents.

Though more than 700 students signed the petition, opinions were mixed from those who enjoyed the festivities.

“I thought it was fairly immature,” Serena Waters, a 20-year-old geology major, said. “I thought it was one of those things where just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. But I think that they made their point.”

Charlene Gey, a 21-year-old communications major, disagreed, saying that although ASUN offers some helpful services, it could be better organized through other means.

“I think the important things ASUN does can be regulated in other ways,” Gey, who was ninth to sign the petition, said. “Everything around us is being cut. If you can’t go to class but you can get free pizza, there’s something wrong.”

Nevada Sagebrush reporter Thomas Levine contributed to this story. Tara Verderosa can be reached at tverderosa@nevadasagebrush.com.

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