ASUA endorsement of IIF Building does not represent student interest

I was deeply grieved to see on the front cover of Friday's Wildcat that our newly elected ASUA officials have expressed their support for Manuel Pacheco's pet project, the Integrated Instructional Facility building. Every poll taken of the students on this campus has shown that students are not in support of spending the $20 million to dig a hole in the middle of the Mall. Despite this, Gilbert Davidson, Tara Taylor, and Casey Cuny sent a letter to the board of regents expressing their support for this facility. Maybe I missed something, but aren't student representatives supposed to represent the students?

This action is most regrettable coming from Gilbert Davidson, who for years has been working on getting renovations for the Student Union.

If money is frivolously wasted on the IIF, the university will not be able to pay for Student Union renovations without serious cost to the students. Even worse is the bizarre logic Davidson used to support this action. He stated that "the primary reason for sending the letter was to make sure that they did not stop the Student Union project because of concerns about the IIF." Um, hello? What are you smoking and why aren't you sharing? Yes, the letter did state that the top priority of students was the Union renovations, but I fail to see how supporting the IIF will expedite that. Davidson also stated that the initial polling was taken before the university had agreed to the Union renovations, and that is why so many students were against the IIF project. However, I'd like to know where he got that delusion as most people I know who are opposed to this project have been since the beginning, regardless of the Union.

Despite the fact that I know and respect all three of these student representatives, I deeply regret that they obviously have little consideration for the opinions of the students on this campus, and that they would attempt to represent us without any real research into how we want to be represented. My only consolation is that I will never see the benefits (or lack thereof) of the freshman cave.

By Rachel Reinhardt
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 9, 1997