Georgetown University undergraduate students voted Oct. 26 to approve two referendums calling on the university to, respectively, prioritize arts funding in future campus development and reform policies penalizing students for amplified noise violations. 

The STAGE Act, the referendum on arts funding, passed with 82.3% — 2,396 students — voting in favor, while the Restore Student Life Act passed with 88.5% — 2,533 students — voting in favor. 2,912 and 2,862 students in total voted on each referendum, respectively, surpassing the 25% turnout threshold required for a referendum to be certified. 

Turnout for these referendums, which appeared on the same ballot as elections for Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) Executive and senate candidates, exceeded turnout for the most recent referendum April 29. 

The previous referendum demanded the university divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military. 2,132 students, or 29.5% of the student body, voted on the divestment referendum, with 67.9% voting in favor. 

The STAGE Act requests that Georgetown include performing arts rehearsal and performance spaces in the designs of all new buildings and developments on each of the university’s campuses, urging the university to express a commitment to the arts. A number of student arts organizations on campus — including theater groups Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society and Nomadic Theatre, whose members want to see more spaces available for the arts on campus — endorsed the referendum. 

The Student Life Act calls on the university to remove sanctions for noise violations from students’ records at the end of the academic year, to implement a policy allowing students one notice for a noise complaint before they are given a citation and to extend weekend quiet hours from midnight to 1:30 a.m.

The referendums are nonbinding, and their implementation would require the university administration to enact the suggested policy changes.