CAL POLY - Cal Poly officials have agreed to look into allegations of voter intimidation during a vote last month in which students approved two fee increases for the coming year.

Leaders of the Progressive Student Alliance -- a liberal group that opposed one of the fee hikes -- first called for an investigation two weeks ago in a memorandum to Cornel Morton, Cal Poly's vice president for student affairs.

Morton said he expects to get another proposal asking him to look into the matter from the Fee Advisory Committee, co-chaired by student body president Alison Anderson and Larry Kelley, the university's vice president for administration and finance.

The memo also requested that one of the referendums -- the one that increased an athletic scholarship fee -- be nullified if allegations prove true that athletes intimidated students to say yes to raising an athletic scholarship fee from $4.15 per quarter to $36.

In an election held April 14-15, students approved the measure 53 percent to 47 percent. Students also passed by a 3-1 margin a referendum to raise a health services fee from $31 to $46 per quarter.

Morton said Tuesday he hoped to begin looking into the claims in the next couple of days.

"I do not expect that we're going to nullify the election," he said. "At the same time, the concerns are serious enough to warrant a very, very thorough review of the accusations."

Morton said it would take something such as voter fraud to nullify an election.

The allegations focus on whether athletes intimidated other students to vote yes, at the request of their coaches, said Progressive Student Alliance president Clayton Whitt. He said several athletes told him that coaches asked them to collect names of 10 students who would vote yes and to accompany them to the polls.

"I heard lots of people who said athletes approached them saying, 'You have to vote yes, and I need your name to show our coaches.' "

Efforts to reach Interim Athletic Director Alison Cone on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Whitt said four other groups on campus now support the request for an investigation: the Cal Poly Democratic Club, the Indian Students Association, Persian Students of Cal Poly and Club 34, made up of art and design students. The Progressive Student Alliance opposed the athletic fee hike before the election, but Whitt said the call for an investigation was not motivated by politics.

"If it were a fair election and it passed, this would be acceptable," he said.