He has also led a petition drive that received about 1,000 signatures from the 3,000-student body.

Those calling for a new statute require about 372,000 signatures before being placed on the ballot.

Those seeking a new constitutional amendment require about 595,000 signatures.

So the petition teams plan to gather about a million signatures in all.

The petition is about 30 signatures short of the necessary 188 needed to bring it to the floor.

Under a city statute, opponents needed about 68,000 signatures, or 10 percent of the electorate, to do so.

The Sainsbury petition was expected to attract about 2,500 signatures.

The movement spread to Germany, where a similar petition drew about 1.8 million signatures, she said.

The group gathered about 350 signatures on petitions to "bring back the Dead."

Within a month, the campaign turned in about 52,000 signatures.