By Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 20, 1998

Union Fee 2

I can' t pull money out of the sky. Well, maybe I can."

- Peter Likins

Like some summer-movie-spectacular sequel, the fee to help fund renovations of the Memorial Student Union will be in front of student voters again.

Though discussions on the paying for a new Student Union have included mention of a student fee, University of Arizona President Peter Likins Wednesday announced he does, in fact, plan to return to students with a new proposal. This time, Likins said, there will be specifics and the fee will be a "small fraction" of last semester's $40 a semester proposal.

With the publicity and controversy surrounding last fall's referendum, the idea of specific plans and a limited fee should sound just right to a community that may be tired of hearing about the issue at all.

Still, when one watches tours of prospective students walking through the Student Union it's hard not to wonder what they must think of the generally run down building. After all the Student Union is the center piece of the campus.

For this reason, the Student Union issue won't go, and shouldn't, go away until ground is broken. A new Student Union is an opportunity for to put into action the university's commitment to students and Likins' apparent commitment to communication. Every student and employee of the university is in some way affected.

At the Wednesday's KAMP Student Radio/Associated Students' forum, Likins said his goal is too bring optimism back to a university racked by the last decade's financial stress. He told the small group of students in attendance that every department on campus has felt the sting of budget cutbacks.

Whether or not Likins succeeds in retrieving cash from the heavens, the public argument for a better-funded university is something this campus and this state should hear.

For too many years, Arizona's university system has been the whipping boy of the government.

The Student Union is a standing metaphor for that neglect and one that needs to be rewritten.