Editorial: Death of student union fee a victory of ideals
The latest plan to pay for the Memorial Student Union replacement was unveiled yesterday to the applause of student leaders and administrators. The new scheme, which would throw $500,000 of the UA Intercollegiate Athletic Department's hard-earned dollars at the building, replacing the long reviled idea of student fee, was cheered as "awesome," in an Arizona Daily Wildcat story yesterday. The deal, which will go before the Arizona Board of Regents this week, "thrilled" administrators.
And so, with that joy the Wildcat chronicled so aptly, three years of student union-related angst apparently left the campus. It's all over but the building and the building, well, that's the easy part.
It's funny how the whole thing came down, at least according to Wildcat source and ASUA President Tara Taylor, who attributed the support to the UA athletic department's desire for a better recruitment showcase. That half a million bucks should buy plenty of football players.
But cynicism aside, it does appear the arduous 18 months since the student voters turned out in record numbers to turn back an administration and ASUA-sponsored student fee by a 3 to 1 margin have ended in a policy decision that reflects the desire of those students.
Let no one call Peter Likins a slumlord ever again.
Let every student, however, remember the kind of activism that brought about the end of the student fee. Beyond the efforts of students involved in an ad hoc committee like "Union Yes, Fee No," there was a far simpler kind of political behavior at work. It is, in fact, the very kind of political behavior precious few students took part in yesterday and will take part in today. It's called voting. Despite what one might think given the make-up of our student government and its absolute refusal, on most issues, to respond to the desires of the vast majority of the student body, students voices can count and will count.
So let us not take this victory over a well-meaning yet brutally mismanaged idea like a student union fee as an episode in itself. Rather, let the ideals that led to the measure's defeat become commonplace. The actions of students voting, not just with the ballot, but with the feet and the tongue, are the key to restoring a reasonable level of student activities to the campus, to solving issues of childcare. Look no further than the actions of residence hall students, whose action in the face of another mismanaged administrative action made a difference.
As a community, this is not the time for administrators like Student Union's director Dan Adams and administrative lap dogs like Taylor and Sen. Ben Graff to bask in the glory of Athletic Director Jim Livengood's actions. This is the students' victory. We are 35,000 voters on this campus every day. We should make them count.
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