One thousand and eighty-three students voted on the referendum about how much of the eight proposed fee increases they supported on Monday and Tuesday.

Although this is 3.4 percent of the student body, Student Senate President Greg Doucette and co-chair of the Fee Advisory Committee said this result surpassed his expectations.

Doucette admitted during Wednesday night’s Student Senate meeting that although he said he expected 200 students to vote, he downplayed that number.

“I didn’t want [fewer students] to vote and to get embarrassed,” he said.

Tom Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs and co-chair of the Fee Review Committee, refused to comment about the referendum or its results, and whether or not they will impact his decisions on fee increases.

Doucette though, said he will vote the same as the results of the referendum because of his promise to the student body that their votes will count.

According to Doucette’s remarks during the meeting, the referendum was originally scheduled for Oct. 8 and 9, but because “the University couldn’t get their act together,” the dates changed to Oct. 1 and 2.

Nate Myers, senator and freshman in mechanical engineering, said he was impressed by the number of people that voted, and he said in the future, when the Senate has more time to prepare and publicize, he expects more students to vote.

“Considering this is the first time they did this, it’s a great start,” Myers said. “I would like to see it grow.”

Myers said for the future, he hopes the Senate can get the referendum passed earlier with University cooperation.

Another improvement Myers said he would like to see is for the justifications’ links for each fee request to be clearer on the voting site.

He said it is possible some students voted without reading the justifications, and he would not put it past them, though he hopes that was not the case.

“I feel pretty confident that they thought about it,” he said.

Mike Alston, senator and appropriations committee chair, said the referendum was the “voice of the people.”

“It’s a good idea to put it to the people,” he said.

According to Alston, “the passionate student body” voted and therefore, the 1,083 students who voted were representative of the rest of the population.

Myers said most students voted against fee increases, which is expected, and he said both the referendum and the presentations of the groups requesting increases would affect his voting in the committee.

He said what he found surprising was how 50 percent of students voted against a fee increase for Recreational Sports and how 50 percent of students voted against a Student Health expansion fee increase.

Dawn Sanner, director of facilities and operations of Carmichael Complex, said she was very impressed with the referendum and the number of students who voted as well.

“Four digits [in voters] was not in my mind at all,” she said.

Sanner said she did worry some students voted without reading the justifications.

“The only thing that might concern me is the fee process is so confusing,” she said.

According to Sanner, she didn’t care which way students voted but that getting their voices out was important.