The meeting became heated as Davis approachedthe podium following the president's openingremarks to present him with the petition. Gabaywould have none of it.

"You're out of order," he said, bagging hisgavel. "Please take a seat."

When Davis refused, Gabay snapped: "Sit down orget out."

The Constitution

The council's constitution states that "[a]nyquestion may be committed to a referendum or pollby the Council or by a petition signed byone-tenth of the undergraduates."

According to the constitution, "Such areferendum will be advisory unless the provisionsof the referendum make its results binding."

Davis' petition specified that all thosesigning "commit[ted] the attached [five] questionsto a Referendum." The questions were on a sheet ofpaper headed by the words "Binding Referendum" inbold letters.

Gabay said he chose a vote on the term bill inparticular because that was the mostwidely-discussed issue on the petition.

"[That's] my understanding, just from talkingabout it in Quincy House, and because it's whatthe Crimson's been publicizing," Gabay said.

Gabay said that "all of the people, 10 people"talked to among his Quincy constituents had signedthe petition solely because they wanted a vote onthe term-bill hike.

But Davis objected to Gabay's contention thatthe students signed primarily for a vote on theterm-bill increase.

"There's no way for any of us to know whosigned for any of these issues unless we call themall," Davis said.

Aside from the term-bill hike, Davis' petitionwould allow students to vote on popular electionof the four top council executives; semiannualgeneral elections; the distribution of all unspentmoney to the house committees; and the eliminationof the option students have to check a box ontheir term bill and waive their council fee.

Vice President Joshua D. Liston '95 argued thatonly the term-bill hike should be on thereferendum because all the other questions onDavis' petition would require a change in thestudent government's constitution or by-laws.

Liston argued in an interview last night thatthe council has mechanisms to change itsconstitution and by-laws, and said he wasn't surewhether a referendum could "trump" thosemechanisms.