By Gilbert Davidson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
December 2, 1997

Students need to come together over union

Editor:

This letter is addressed to my Fellow U of A Students:

The week before last, students voted on the Student Union Referendum. Over 4,400 students voted in the two-day voting process and overwhelmingly voted "no" on the referendum. The students, I believe, support the idea of a new and improved student union but disagree as to who should pay for it and how it should be done. The Associated Students have worked several years on this issue and will continue to work to improve the student union, but only with the help and support of the students.

Where do we begin? This question was moments after the announcement of the failed referendum. My response was two-fold: First, I was tired of dealing with the referendum and the whole issue of the student union. I wanted to work on other issues that were not as controversial. Second, after much thought, I knew I could not give up and let the issue die after many years of fighting to get the student union as a campus priority. The process ASUA and the Referendum Advisory Group (student leaders who created the referendum) took was to educate students about the need for a safe and much improved student union to take control over the project since the UA administration had failed to take charge years ago. Somewhere in the process we lost control and the meaning of what we were attempting to do for the campus was lost in political rhetoric. Rather than spending time trying to be proactive and address student's questions and their concerns, we were spending time reacting to false claims, inaccurate information, and the sensationalism of the Wildcat. ASUA did not handle the referendum issues very well which was evidenced by the massive voter disapproval.

Where do we begin? I must say, we have a long way to go and our beginning has been a bit rocky. We must first send a message to the administration that we want a new union. This is extremely important because we do not want the negative vote to indicate our disapproval for a new union. The negative vote was in response to the financial plan presented in the referendum. Secondly, we must communicate with the Board of Regents the exact same message. If the Regents deem our "no" vote as a sign we do not want a union, the battle to complete this project will become five times as hard. Finally, we, the student body, must agree with the administrators on how to finance this entire project without hurting our pocket books. I need everyone's help and support in this process if we as students are to be successful.

We need to begin by sending letters to President Likins explaining our support for this project and that the "no" vote merely meant "no" on the referendum. As student body president, I will be appointing a special task force to begin a new approach to initiating and completing this project. The Student Union Task force will be composed of students on both sides of the issue, those for a fee and those against, as well as students throughout our campus. They will be meeting with administrators and other student groups to create a new plan.

As we begin to research and study this issue some more, I want to thank everyone who voted and took part in this very exciting and historic event. Even though it may not seem like it, we have already made an impact on this campus by openly addressing a large and complicated problem like the student union. May everyone have success with all your finals.

Gilbert Davidson
ASUA President