The Nevada Sagebrush

Tony Contini/Nevada Sagebrush Students filled empty bags with Las Trojes food Thursday.

A club dedicated to abolishing the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, spent more than  $900 of ASUN money Thursday on free food for students. The event was meant to illustrate that public goods will lead to rationing or shortages and that “ASUN will fund anything,” according to the club’s president.

More than 200 students lined up outside Las Trojes, a Mexican restaurant in the Ansari Business building, at about noon to take advantage of the event.

The activity was orchestrated by the Students for Liberty. Many students brought duffel bags, empty backpacks and grocery bags to fill with burritos, candy bars and orange juice. The over-consumption of students led to the money being spent in less than 20 minutes, said club president Mike Fasano.

The event illustrated the idea of the “tragedy of the commons,” he said.

“The tragedy of the commons is the concept that when something is conceived as free, when there’s a public good, it either leads to rationing or massive shortages,” Fasano said.

Barry Belmont, one of the founders of the club, estimated that between 30 and 60 people received food out of about 200 people in line. The line stretched from the door of Las Trojes to the end of the hallway on the opposite side of the building and blocked the stairs and doorway.

Benjamin Kaplan, the first person in line, said he arrived about an hour early for the event. He walked out of the store with a duffel bag filled with about $50 worth of food.

Many followed, grabbing several bottles of drinks, tacos, burritos and more.

Cameron Belt, an ASUN club commissioner, said the funding that has been given to Students for Liberty — including more than $3,000 last semester to put on a carnival with ponies, pizza and bounce houses — was put to good use.

“The (carnival) that they put on last semester was one of the only events I saw (from any club) that wasn’t just for the members of the club. It was for the rest of the students,” he said.

Belt said they wouldn’t have been eligible to receive as much funding as they have for events like the carnival and the free food event if they hadn’t been open to the public.

He agreed that the funding practices of ASUN should be changed, but didn’t agree that the whole system should be abolished.

“Without ASUN, we wouldn’t have a bookstore,” Belt said. “There are a lot of good things that ASUN does.”

The government needs to listen to all students, including the Students for Liberty, he said.

A possible compromise to abolishing the student government could be making the mandatory per-credit ASUN fee an opt-in fee, he said.

Ben Miller can be reached at bmiller@nevadasagebrush.com.

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