Editorial: Will the model union change your mind?

Then in 1997, record numbers of students returned with the equally strident reply of "damned if I'll pay for them," voting down a proposed $40-a-semester student fee by a resounding margin of nearly three to one.

Through it all, the Memorial Student Union remained untouched and a solid plan for a new union unformed.

That is until the Board of Regents voted to waive seven board rules and fast-track construction by allowing construction to be directed by one design-build team.

Now, finally, the sound and fury is starting to signify something. The university has settled on a design-build contractor, the gateway to beginning construction. They have a nifty model, too.

The anointing of a team and the fast-tracking is the first shrewd step the university has taken toward meeting the practical necessity of an updated union.

But there's still a muddle ahead. The university has yet to settle on a funding strategy and likely won't until the Board of Regents meeting in February when they ask the regents to approve their choice for the joint architect-contractor team.

After the embarrassing outcome of the 1997 referendum, administrators are leery of even saying "student fee." They are stepping gingerly about the question of whether a student fee will be part of the financial package at all.

But we can't help but hearken back to post-referendum 1997 and early 1998, when administrators, including President Peter Likins, said adamantly that students will have to pay, one way or another, and that he envisions another student referendum.

We're wondering. While we're wondering, everyone from admins to ASUA reps have been attributing the resounding referendum defeat to students not being able to see what they are paying for.

"They felt like hey, we're not even given a chance to see what it looks like," said ASUA President Tara Taylor.

Well now they have that nifty model. It's quite impressive by all accounts and administrators have high hopes for its power to rally students.

"If one sees what is being proposed they will have a hard time saying no," said Student Union Director Dan Adams.

We have practical reservations that students will experience a thunderous change of heart but we are curious. How will having a model to look at move students?

The model will be on display in the Anniversary Lounge in the Student Union Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a half-hour at noon, beginning next Wednesday. Go and take a look. Then be vocal about how you feel. Write the Wildcat about your experience, if you'd like.

The administrators are hoping to decide on a funding strategy before the Board of Regents meeting Feb. 26-27.

If you've had a change of heart then that will make deciding on a funding strategy that much easier. It may even make the fast-track slicker, for certainly we can't see how fast a track can be if funding is uncertain.

But if you haven't had a change of heart, making it known early may spare us from muddling through another miscalculated referendum and a lot of sound and fury amounting to nothing.