By Mark Rooney
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 31, 1997

Union needs student fee

Editor:

I am very concerned with the latest letter printed in the Wildcat concerning the student union referendum. I am involved with ASUA and more importantly, I sit on the student committee that wrote the referendum. It is sad to say but some of the students on this campus are incredibly misinformed. Sometimes I think no ones listening.

Unfortunately, the student fee is a necessary evil. The regents have already mandated a new union which means we're getting one whether we like it or not. We just get to decide how we're going to pay for it, that my friends, is the purpose of the referendum. With a fee, we get: immediate club, programming, and student service funding, more multi-cultural programs, accessibility for all students, not to mention n entirely new state-of-the-art facility. And the money, the fee, the programs, and the building are all completely monitored by the students. That's right, we gain so much more than a lousy building (and we only pay half).

Without a fee, we get an incredibly large increase in tuition (probably much more than $40) and we pay for the entire project. We also get our student programs cut and they're already under funded. We lose ownership of the project and of course, there's no chance of a student advisory group. We get screwed out of far more than $40 a semester!

I am so sick of politics and talk and "this thing should have been renovated years ago" and "the administration should have fund-raised before now." Hindsight is 20/20. The longer we wait the worse the situation becomes, we either step up and vote on the referendum or get trampled by program cuts and tuition hikes.

Mark Rooney
Chemical Engineering Junior