Groups applying for special fees will join candidates in awaiting the results of ASSU elections tonight. But this year, the special fees process has been marked by new restrictions and difficulties gaining the support of one student population — graduate students.

The most significant change to this year’s special fees process is an amendment requiring all groups applying for joint special fees to receive a majority of support from both undergraduate and graduate voters. This policy change makes joint fees more difficult to obtain, since graduate students have traditionally been more conservative with their money.

Some groups, such as the Stanford News Readership Program, that had traditionally sought joint special fees opted this year to apply for undergraduate special fees in light of the new restriction. But such groups will continue to cater to both undergraduate and graduate populations.

“When a student group requesting special fees is listed as undergraduate only, that means that the group is only requesting money from the undergraduate Stanford students,” said ASSU Funding Coordinator Jeff Lock ‘10. “But their services are not necessarily limited to undergraduates only.”

The Stanford Comedy Club, which sought joint special fees, learned the difficulties of the joint fees process the hard way — the group did not even receive enough petition signatures to be placed on the ballots for this year’s election.

“[During next year’s elections,] we are going to go just as an undergraduate group,” said Graduate student and Comedy Club officer Melahn Parker. “I think you will find that not enough graduate students vote to pass most special fees. Undergraduates vote ‘yes’ to special fees and in general are more involved with groups.”

Groups receiving joint fees were also most often the target of students who preferred not to fund certain organizations and receive a refund from the ASSU last fall, according to data provided by the ASSU.

Most groups that received special fees had between a five and seven percent refund request rate. KZSU has the highest refund request rate of any student group at 7.5 percent, closely followed by joint groups Student Organizing Committee for the Arts and Stanford Club Sports. Out of undergraduate groups, Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) had the highest refund rate at 6.86 percent.