Administrators appealed to the Associated Students for unity on the issue of the $20 million Integrated Instructional Facility yesterday, one day before the Arizona Board of Regents meets on the UA campus.

"We don't need to quarrel with ASUA," Provost Paul Sypherd said. "It won't help us. It won't help future students. We need your support and we don't need a string of students to go up to the regents meeting opposing this."

Sypherd said, given the atmosphere among the current regents, it would not take much to swing the votes to not approve the new construction.

"I don't see what that would achieve," Sypherd said. "It won't push the Student Union forward."

Patrick Williams, ASUA academic affairs director, said it was not ASUA's intent to be confrontational with the administration.

"We just have a duty to students," he said. "We are asked by students how (construction) will affect the Homecoming parade and Spring Fling."

Williams also asked if changes could be made in the plans to accommodate some student concerns about study space in the building.

Mike Gottfredson, vice provost of undergraduate education, said that while the building plans are not set in stone, it took two years of planning to get to this point. He said first impressions may not be accurate when looking at the building.

"Can this facility be replicated somewhere else on campus? No it can't," Gottfredson said. "Is it absolutely essential? You won't find much that is absolutely essential. But nearly everyone in administration believes this will improve the experience of st udents."

David Benton, Arizona Students' Association director for ASUA, asked if the unique nature of the underground building might cause unexpected overruns.

Richard Roberts, UA chief budget officer, said, if overruns occur, the project will be reevaluated to fit within its budget.

Sypherd said the building is not entirely unique. He said McClelland Hall, Optical Sciences and Life Sciences all have underground floors that the IIF is being modeled after.

Sypherd said the need for the new building is due to the lack of alternative classroom space on campus.

He said that when enrollment was capped at 35,000 by the regents, the university faced a deficit in classroom space. Based on a formula used in universities across the country, Sypherd said that campus wide, there is a 1.5-million-square-foot shortage of space on campus. The figure, he said, included research, teaching and office space.

"Maybe you have tried to see some Humanities professors and find them sharing offices with two or three other professors," Sypherd said. "That does not offer much privacy."

Joel Valdez, senior vice president of business affairs, said the suggestion to redo existing buildings is not realistic because there is no space to relocate the classes and offices to.

"Unless you want to cancel (the classes affected), what you are proposing is not possible," Valdez said. "There is no place to move them to."

If disruption of classes is a concern, the IIF is estimated to take 18 months to build, while it is speculated that the Student Union will take nine years, Valdez said.

Williams said ASUA requested the meeting because it felt their questions were not being answered.

"We didn't have an opportunity to get everyone together at the same time to answer our questions," Williams said. "That was the issue all along."

ASUA President Rhonda Wilson said the cabinet would meet to discuss the results of the meeting.

She said they did not plan to make a statement at the regents meeting today, though that plan could change after she consults with her cabinet.

Overall, she said she thought the meeting was beneficial.

"It was a positive meeting," Wilson said. "I think it represented a sincere effort on their part."

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