Last Spring, a $40 increase to the optional student activities fee was approved unanimously by the Faculty Council after winning a similar campus-wide referendum. The renewable energy fee would appear as a separate line-item on a student termbill.

Two Harvard institutions, the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), buy electricity from renewable sources. The KSG held a successful student referendum last year to require a $10 yearly clean energy fee from its students to cover all electricity costs; the HSPH meets half of its electricity needs with renewable energy purchased by the administration.

A FAS Resource Efficiency Prorgram (REP) survey conducted in 2003 found that 70 percent of undergraduates would support a $25 fee to switch to renewable energy sources.

Proponents of the proposed referendum are pleased that their cause is drawing the College’s attention.

“It’s important that this issue is talked about in the UC and that it’s talked about on campus,” said Alexander L. Pasternack ’05, who helped to organize the Harvard Students for Clean Energy group, and is also a Crimson editor. “And if we want renewable energy, do we put our money where our mouth is?”