After nearly seven months of work and collaboration, the Yard Steering Committee has officially requested to postpone the Yard referendum originally scheduled for March 29 to the fall.

Though GUSA has not yet approved the withdrawal, YSC co-chair Sabine Calle (SFS ’03) said that the referendum will probably not take place as scheduled.

According to Calle, YSC members have been unofficially discussing the possibility of a rescheduling with several GUSA officials since March 15, following disputes over the final content of the proposed constitution.

The YSC’s Wednesday press release cited two key reasons for the postponement, “exhaustion and academic responsibilities,” and a desire to involve a larger portion of the student body, such as club leaders and ordinary students.

“A postponement will allow new voices to be heard,” the release said.

The referendum, which would have replaced GUSA with a proposed Yard Student Association, was originally to take place Feb. 26, the same day as the GUSA executive elections.

“John Cook (SFS ’03) and Sabine Calle have been at this since September, others have put in hundreds of hours, and we had originally planned to end on February 26,” YSC co-chair Nate Willems (SFS ’01) said.

In mid-February GUSA and the YSC decided to postpone the vote to arch 29 to provide time for the formulation of the best possible constitution for a new student government. Several days after GUSA’s decision, President Tawan Davis (COL ’01) sponsored the creation of a Constitutional Review Committee that proposed to forge a constitution that would incorporate aspects of both GUSA and the proposed Yard by March 15.

However, members of the committee, who worked for nearly a month on perfecting a document that would best represent the student body, were unable to reach a consensus by the deadline because of disagreement within the YSC. The last-minute disagreement required the YSC to hastily post a constitution online on March 15.

“We are pleased that the document that came out of the CRC and which was posted on the Yard Web site was almost identical to the original Yard document,” Calle said. “But some changes at the end unnecessarily excluded some members of the community, and among other things, made it difficult for all the Yard Steering Committee to stand behind the document,” she added.

Willems and Calle said that they felt GUSA and SAC dominated the constitutional review process. However, Anthony Marinello (COL ’04), who acted as a GUSA representative on the CRC, disagreed.

“If people had had something to say about the formation of the constitution they would have [said it],” Marinello said. “The majority of the meetings were open to the public, and everyone had a chance to speak their mind.”

While Marinello, like others on the CRC, put in countless hours to produce a revised document, he was not unhappy about the YSC’s request for postponement.

“Pushing the referendum back to the fall isn’t a bad thing as long as information can be provided for students so that they can make educated decisions,” he said.

GUSA Chief of Staff Keavney Klein (NHS ’02), an opponent of the original Yard document, said she agreed pushing back the referendum could potentially educate more students. “It has been an extremely long process, and students haven’t been completely up to date on what has been going on .” she said.

Students Against the Yard spokesperson Aaron Polkey (COL ’02) said that he thinks moving the referendum will lead to greater understanding of the issues involved in the debate.

“A lot of the funding changes under the Yard are very complex and confusing and would impact the ability of small clubs to operate and we didn’t feel it was something we should rush into.”

Another advantage of the postponement could be an increase in support because of the extended time period for Yard campaigning. For the constitution to pass, the GUSA Constitutional Council ruled that 25 percent of the student body, or approximately 1,625 students must vote for it. Pushing the referendum to the fall would allow YSC members to garner enough student support, proponents say.

“While we appreciate the [GUSA] intervention . it took away from our ability to lay the groundwork for a campaign,” Willems said in the press release.

Willems and Calle said that they would maintain their positions as co-chairs of the YSC until the end of the school year. They also said that they would seek out new dedicated students to become involved in the campaign process.

Several members of the YSC have stepped down from their original positions on the committee. Matt Brennan’s (SFS ’03) resignation from YSC spokesperson stemmed primarily from outside commitments. Jack Ternan (COL ’04), who acted as a representative on the CRC, offered his resignation to the YSC after posting the constitution online March 15.