Posted by Trevor Lovell

 
Let me begin by saying congratulations to the Aggie Green Fund team for a HUGE victory tonight! They set a precedent for campus sustainability in Texas and their efforts will raise $1.5million for green projects over the next five years. Seriously… well done!

We knew that if there was one campus where passing a green fund would be tough, it would be Texas A&M. The group we worked with was smart and dedicated, but they had big obstacles to overcome.

Then it got worse. As the bill to put the green fund on the ballot moved through the Student Senate it caught the attention of several members of Texas Aggie Conservatives (formerly the Young Conservatives of Texas) who decided to oppose it as a primary focus for their on-campus activism. The Aggie Green Fund team was ready for a robust debate, we were ready to support them, but we weren’t ready for a campaign loaded with misleading statements, personal attacks, and outright lies.

Leaders of Texas Aggie Conservatives invited their friends and members to a Facebook group called “Aggies Against the Green Fund” which they used to attract more fair-minded people who might be repelled by tactics used by more hardcore members. These included two flyers which were distributed on campus containing information that was not misleading, it was false.

The first such flyer claimed that voting for the Aggie Green Fund would result in shower timers being placed on dorm showers. The flyer employed absolute language, insinuating that this was not a potential project, but a definite one. The other one claimed that voting for the Aggie Green Fund would raise costs for an average student by $90 over his/her academic career. Since the fee was only $3 per semester or $1.50 per summer session, a more reasonable range would be $24-$36. Texas Aggie Conservatives claimed the flyer was justified because state law would allow the $3 fee to be raised to as much as $10, and further claimed that it could be interpreted to give the Board of Regents approval to make that change without student approval. Sounds very legalistic and specific, but there’s just one problem- subsection (d) of the bill (HB3353) clearly states that any increase in the fee must first be voted on by the student body. This second flyer clearly should have been thrown out by the Election Commission and the group distributing sanctioned. It is unclear at this time why this wasn’t done.

Despite these tactics and others, the final vote came in with more than 57% of student voters supporting the Aggie Green Fund! Leaders of the opposition group have vowed to keep fighting, but their members were clearly demoralized at having failed to make a small fee for smart sustainability projects into a wedge issue. Even with false information being spread about the costs and results of the fund, a large majority chose to move forward with what they knew to be in the best interest of both their campus and the planet.

Again, well done Aggie Green Fund! Go celebrate, get refocused on classes and whatever else you sacrificed to make this a victory, and know that what you did this week will inspire others to follow your lead.

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