Students profoundly voted down Proposition 909.30 last Monday. Almost 6,000 students turned out — 21.4 percent of regular undergraduates — to voice their utter and complete dissent of several student fee proposals.

A remarkable 61.6 percent of N.C. State’s students decided that this project wasn’t in their economic best interest, despite the rhetoric offered by the Rally 4 Talley campaign and University administrators. The student body had well represented itself and made a clear point.

In the fashion I thought was reserved for the most callous and bitter old men on Capitol Hill, most of Student Senate — students’ representatives to the University — turned on its own constituents.

I sat in the Student Senate meeting for several hours last Tuesday and watched most of “our representatives” effectively claim students were too stupid to know what we had voted for. It was appalling and disgusting to watch my elected leaders — yes, I did elect a few of these traitorous heathens — undo my vote.

I won’t use names because I don’t want to see them stoned, but I heard one senator say that his constituents weren’t informed enough to make an appropriate decision.

Really, because the $10,000 Campus Enterprises provided to advertise the Talley campaign didn’t inform anyone on the topics; and Technician is so shoddy that no one can believe the myriad coverage it provided.

This was the best informed voting base I’ve ever seen; as one senator pointed out, he had friends in California who knew about Talley — California!

Another senator said he couldn’t take the vote seriously because “51 percent of students didn’t vote.” Is he kidding? Student Government’s referenda received a 531 percent voter increase during the last two years (3.9 percent two years ago, 21.4 percent this year), and the turnout isn’t reputable. Perhaps the senator should take a look at what percentage of eligible voters participated in his election — he probably shouldn’t be taken seriously either.

An enlightened soul chimed in, saying that, clearly, 81 percent of students had no opinion (18.9 percent of students voted in total). Oh right, that’s why you were elected, so that you could make generalized assumptions about your constituents in order to disregard the vote that was unfavorable to your project — your “legacy.”

I wish I could say this was the end of the betrayal, that thoughtful deliberation moved forward and the students were vindicated. Not on this occasion, the writer’s of the recommendation came up with an absurd formula, where the Talley-Atrium fee could lose the vote and still be the “will” of the students. By claiming that students saw a need for changes and that the project was a priority (see the first and last questions on the ballot), students had actually consented to the proposed fee they specifically dissented to by an overwhelming 61.6 percent. It was sickening to watch their blatant disregard of student will for their personal legacies and resume building.

Does Talley need to be rebuilt? Yes. Will it be more expensive in the future? Yes

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But this economic crisis was created, in part, by people who spent money they didn’t have and organizations that convinced them their mortgage wasn’t too much. The lesson of this economy was that people must stop spending beyond their means — apparently Student Government missed it.

To add insult to our injury, the University fee review committee, with the Student Senate recommendation as a point of support, decided last Wednesday to unanimously put its weight behind the Atirum-Talley fee.

The ego and legacy of the administrators and student leaders sitting around that table corrupted their minds to the point that they could no longer see the students they served — that’s sad.

I’m ashamed to say that lot represents me and will never again trust in the self-serving rubber stamp committee that Student Senate is — after its betrayal, neither should you.

Were there senators who fought against Student Government’s eventual recommendation that the Talley fee, among others, move forward? Of course, and they should be commended for being stewards of their constituencies. But they lost — and so did the people. Tuesday and Wednesday of last week were sad days for the University — democracy died.