Students were both angered and relieved by Tuesday’s election results regarding the three amendments and one initiative in Utah.
The passing of Amendment 3, the marriage definition amendment, caused the most fervent reactions.
Holly Brown, a sophomore nutrition student, said she was glad Amendment 3 passed because she believes marriage should be kept between a man and a woman.
“Families are the basis of our culture in the United States,” she said. “[A family] provides morals and standards for our children and if it isn’t there, there will be drugs, crime [and] violence, [and] will lead to AIDS and create a lot of problems.”
Junior Paul Coals said he thought Amendment 3 was an appropriate amendment, so he voted for it.
“I feel like it best represents the current community standards and the way people in Utah…feel,” he said. “If nothing else, it will send a massage to the White House how Utah stands on traditional marriage.”
When she heard that the amendment passed, junior Cynthia Hornbeck said, “I expected as much.”
“I don’t know why the Republican Party is so eager to make war and not let two people marry,” she said.
Chris Christensen, a student at Salt Lake Community College who plans to attend the U next fall, said he has debated Amendment 3 in his classes and developed a disdain for it during those debates.
“It reinforces discrimination and is an old-world ideal propagated by fear,” he said.
Christensen said he was also disappointed that Initiative 1, the clean air and open spaces initiative, did not pass.
He said that the measure would not only have provided clean air, but clean drinking water as well.
Coals said he was relieved that the initiative did not pass because he originally decided to vote for it, then changed his mind after reading more about it.
“I read a lot of reparations stuff about it,” he said, adding that if he had known about some smaller measures that were “tacked on,” he would not have voted for Initiative 1.
Coals also said he “was surprised to see some of the guys I voted for not support it.”
Brown said she was also happy that Initiative 1 was shot down because it “takes away money from our children’s education, which I think is more important than parks and recreation.”
“Salt Lake could have put up the money for it,” Christensen said.
He added that the initiative would have cost $14 per family to provide clean drinking water, but it would cost twice that amount to import water.
Students felt less passionately about Amendments 1 and 2, which both passed. Amendment 1 compensated legislators for the time they would have to spend during an impeachment process.
“That one sounded more procedural,” said senior Nick Duclos. “It didn’t really have an effect on daily life, especially because it [impeachment] has never been used before.”
“I think they should probably be paid. It takes away from their time and other duties,” said Sarah Bird, a junior English student.
While most student reactions to Amendment 1’s passing were positive or lukewarm, the sentiments regarding Amendment 2 ranged from supportive to unaware.
“I work in research, so it’s good to continue doing what we were doing anyway, but now with the legal backing,” said Duclos.
Bird said she had not heard anything about the current information-sharing exchange not working, but she did not have a strong opinion one way or the other.
Amendment 2 allows universities to exchange knowledge and research for stock in private companies.