By
Maya Schechter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Three-hour discussion included senators, students and faculty
With current students in mind, the ASUA Senate sent a loud message to campus builders last night passing an initiative that requests construction stay away from the Mall.
The UA Mall preservation resolution, written by Associated Students President Ben Graff, was the focus of a three-hour discussion among the senators and an audience of more than 25 people - including UA President Peter Likins, UA students, and Swinerton and Walberg Builders representatives.
The recent proposal to fence off about two-thirds of the Mall in front of the Memorial Student Union - to be used as a staging area to hold steel rods and construction cranes from July until July 2002 - ignited Graff to write the proposal with the hope of the Senate's approval.
Many students voiced their opinions about how special the Mall was to them, and how losing it would diminish their "UA experience."
"The cool thing about the U of A is that we have a centralized area where students come hang out," said English senior Andy DePew.
Caroline Diep, KAMP Radio news director, added that when she first visited the UA campus in 1997, she immediately fell in love with the campus and the Mall unifying all the students.
"(Fencing the Mall) would tear down the spirit of the U of A," said Diep, an art history and molecular and cellular biology sophomore.
The three Swinerton and Walberg representatives emphasized that all campus construction could be finished three months early and save the university money if the Mall were to be fenced off.
There are no other locations on campus to store the construction materials, they added.
But students who now attend the university aren't thinking about the future, DePew said - they are concerned with the current construction issues.
"Saving three months wouldn't be worth it," he added.
The discussion went back and forth from those in favor to the resolution to those who believed Swinerton and Walberg should go ahead with the proposal.
Likins pointed out that most of the Mall, which extends to North Campbell Avenue, would be accessible with the completion of the exterior of the Integrated Learning Center in June. New grass should be in place by July, he said.
The section in question is only a small portion compared to the rest of the Mall, he said.
Sen. Roby Schapira echoed Likins by saying that students would have such a large piece of the Mall available to them, especially with the completion of the first phase of union construction.
There should not be a concern that the west part of the Mall is the center for events and concerts, Schapira said, because there would be a new stage by the cactus garden, and students could congregate in the eastern area of the Mall.
"There has to be hurt in order to heal," Schapira said. "We need to look at the possibility that the project can be done three months early and we can have a beautiful Mall."
Bob Bertolini, Swinerton and Walberg Builders general superintendent, said the current stage would be untouched, and the temporary one would be fully maintained by his company.
Gilbert Davidson, assistant project manager for the new union, and Bob Smith, director of Facilities Design and Construction, answered many questions about construction, and said that although they are a bit behind in schedule, they have every intent of completing the entire project by early spring 2003 - possibly even by Christmas 2002.
Also representing the construction project were Doug Huie, Swinerton and Walberg Builders' student union senior project manager, and Chris Kraft, UA design-build project manager.
The vote on Graff's resolution was made just before 10 p.m. and passed, with five senators in favor, three against, and one abstaining.
After the approval, the construction representatives gathered outside the room to discuss the results, and said they would contact Likins today to decide their next step.
