11/17/2011: Greg Bolt of the RG has a comprehensive story on the administration’s plans for EMU expansion. VP Robin Holmes has proposed a Cadillac prestige project packed with expensive goodies – a swimming pool? Hot tubs? ASUO Pres Ben Eckstein – representing the students who will pay the bill – wants something cheaper and with more space for student groups and activities. Eckstein has forced the administration to bring it to the students for a vote. Now Holmes is trying to play hardball, casting the administration proposal as a final, take it or leave it offer:
Holmes also said the administration will respect the student vote. If the referendum is rejected, the projects will not be built and the facilities will remain as they are.
Bullshit. If the students reject this, the administration will go back to the drawing board, this time with input from the students. Which they should have done in the first place.
How amazing it is that athletics has all these wonderful buildings built at no expense to the athletes, but the students who are here to actually get a college education are supposed to pony up $300 a term. I’m guessing no one voting on the project would actually see it done by the time they graduated.
My understanding is the fee amounts to $100 a term ($300/year)
Dog barks for Eckstein
Keep up the fight, man. A redesigned EMU should
increase learning opportunities for undergraduates. That should be the number one principle guiding the re-design. There are insufficient amounts of collaborative meeting spaces for students, multimedia production studios, etc , etc.
There is no room for hardball as to the academic mission of the campus.
The proposed fee is $100 a term and construction is supposed to end in 2015. Depending on when in 2015, only the current freshmen would benefit from the vote (as well as everyone after them, of course).
While a redesigned EMU is a great investment, the proposals for a pub and concert hall are, in my undergrad opinion, bullshit.
I’m glad Eckstein’s been out there fighting to make sure that the EMU is actually for students.