The Downtown student government voted against a $75-per-semester facilities fee Friday, becoming the first of ASU’s five student governments to vote down the proposed fee.

The vote, six to three with one senator abstaining, marked the second time the Associated Students of ASU Downtown defeated a facilities fee measure for the second time this school year.

ASASUD President Tania Mendes expressed her disappointment over the decision in an e-mail after the meeting.

“The turnout of the facilities fee is truly unfortunate for the Downtown campus and ASU as a whole,” she said.

Friday’s debate on the fee began with a dispute over voting rights as a new freshman senator formally took office directly before the fee discussion.

The newest senator, journalism freshman Leonard Butingan, voted against the fee.

Vice President Beth Wischnia objected to Butingan’s vote.

“He wasn’t even here last semester on the campus,” she said.

Butingan was a student at the West campus before this semester.

Because the ASASUD constitution does not specify when a new senator may begin voting, Butingan was allowed to either abstain or cast a vote.

The new senator said he had already looked over the fee proposal and had spoken with a number of students on how they felt about the fee.

“This isn’t my personal opinion,” Butingan said of his ‘no’ vote.

Senator Cameron Polom’s vote was also a subject of controversy, as he had changed from representing the University College to the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the beginning of the Senate meeting.

Polom, a journalism junior, abstained from the vote because of the switch.

The discussion took another turn when several senators contested the validity of a student survey on the fee taken last semester.

According to the survey results on the ASASUD Web site, 47 out of 71 students did not support a mandatory fee.

“When we surveyed the Downtown student body, they told us three things,” freshman senator Andres Cano said. “Downtown students are against increasing their cost of attendance at ASU, they are satisfied with current facilities and they object to the idea of paying for more treadmills on the Downtown campus.”

Vice President Wischnia advised the senators not to let the survey results influence their votes because less than 1 percent of Downtown students took the survey.

President Mendes spoke before the Senate at Friday’s meeting and asked the senators what they had done to educate their constituents on the fee.

Mendes raised her voice as she spoke.

“I don’t see any constituents here sending me e-mails saying ‘If you support this fee, we’re going to protest,’” she said. “I see countless things going out that say ‘Oh you know what, the facilities are bad, what are [the senators] doing to take action about it?’”

The Senate pushed for a vote after less than 30 minutes of debate on Friday.

The West and Polytechnic student governments have already approved the fee, while the Undergraduate Student Government and the Graduate and Professional Student Association are set to vote this week.

“We’re at a crossroads here,” USG President Brendan O’Kelly said.

O’Kelly, who’s in favor of moving forward with the fee despite Downtown’s lack of support, said this is the first year ASU’s student governments have attempted the ‘one University’ model, and that split support on University-wide legislation can be expected.

“It’s the Downtown campus this time; it could be the Tempe campus next time,” he said.

Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu