A student fee is the wrong approach to funding any campus construction project. This new union isn't just for the students, it will benefit the entire community of Tucson. It will promote business interests, offer cultural opportunities and be a centerpiece of campus activity. Yet none of these potential beneficiaries are being asked to pay for it. Has anyone contacted the Tucson Association for the Arts and asked for a donation? What about the local television and radio stations? And how about all those banks that set up booths in the union at the begining of the semester, don't they have some interest in this affair? Did I mention the credit card and phone companies that advertise in our Union? I'm sure you are getting the point.

Not to mention that the Campus environment is a major determinate when prospective students start shopping for their future college. And if the UofA doesn't do something about the appearance of the Student Union it will eventually have a negative effect on the enrollment numbers at our school.

Is this what the administration wants to happen? Do they want to lose students to ASU or NAU? Both of those schools have VERY nice facilities. And both of them built those facilities WITHOUT imposing a student fee. They did that because their administrators recognized the long term benefits of improving their campus environment.

There is a wealth of private funding available that we haven't even tapped into yet. Not to mention the fact that we have a national memorial in our student union (The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial). We have more U.S.S. Arizona artifacts than anywhere else in the nation, and yet McDonalds gets better advertising. Why haven't we secured funds from congress to improve the display of one of nations most important historical events. Doesn't anyone in D.C. remember World War II? I bet they do. And I bet that if our administration was doing it's job, and if ASUA were doing their job, money would be pouring in from private donations all over the country, and Congress would be sending us blank checks.

But they aren't doing there jobs. Instead, they are asking the students to get second jobs, pay a fee, and alleviate them of any responsibility in this matter. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't work on the weekends so ASUA can go home early. They wanted to be leaders, well part of leading is sacrifice. It's about time the student government started doing something other than pandering to the wishes of this Universities Administration. If our student government really believes that this is the only way to get this done, then I think it's time we started looking for some new student leadership.

We need to oppose this, because there are other ways to get the same results.

Paul Fisher