By Qi Gu
The Daily Cardinal
139,700,000. I know you're going to start processing all those digits. This number reveals the total budget of Wisconsin Union Redevelopment Project (estimated last Dec.), including the construction of a new Union South and renovation of Memorial Union.
Surprisingly still, news is pouring in that Union South now is way over budget.
Personally, I don't object to the construction itself. Yet, as everybody becomes gripped by financial crisis, the notion of a splendid Union South is too much at odds with the context, especially at a time when students and their families are doomed to shell out even more for tuition. On Chancellor Biddy Martin's agenda, a rise in segregated fees has been a matter of course since last year: This could help pay faculty and improve UW-Madison's academic competitiveness. If academics are indeed weighed so much, why don't we show adequate sympathy to the other end of the balance: students. If academics is a top priority, why do we bother to dump hundreds of millions of hard cash into still usable non-academic infrastructures? Well, out of courtesy,
I'll let the other debater talk first.
While the new union is under construction, you may wonder where will you get your coffee, snacks, and lunch. What about your weekly meeting room, SOAR and Badger Bash?
As you turn to the new union's website, these questions pop up in red. Chew them a bit and you come to find: What a pertinent summary of Union South this is! Namely, food and gathering. Wait a second, do these functions really call for an entirely new building? I ate my first American lunch here in the old Union South, and that experience is still refreshing. I remember during my SOAR orientation how my advisor wished us success by quoting an old man's encouragement for Walt Whitman. Everything rolled out just perfect. And if the South Hall could continue its legend into its 153rd spring, why can't the 38-year-old Union South have its 40th birthday? Well, the eyesore"" Union is already history. Yet from a more utilitarian perspective, I don't find this change affecting my daily routine much. As the web site suggests, without Union South, you still have plenty of places to go. This message implies that current facilities can mostly accommodate students' needs. Instead of squeezing Union South's functions into other services, we are using the present resources more efficiently. So why are we still digging in our thin pockets for something we don't really need?
That's not the end of the story. To justify its birth, new Union South is championed as a victory for democracy: In 2006, UW-Madison students voted for it. Do you have more to say when the ""outrageous"" project actually slips out of our own tongue? Back in 2006, the Student Union initiative was dubiously phrased. It stuffed the refurbishment of Memorial Union, demolishing of Union South and construction of a completely new replacement building all into a single voting package instead of dividing them into three individual initiatives. For students endorsing only the first part, they had to approve other parts as well to get the rather imperative renovation done.
However, even those fully embracing the initiatives shouldn't be blamed. The economy still looked good two years ago and the school wasn't whining over fund shortages. Thus, the proposal didn't seem THIS bad. Even among 20 Wall Street elite friends of George Soros, only one predicted recession. This was on Aug. 17 of 2007, almost one year after the Union South II resolution. Asking a layman student to foretell storm through sunshine was just too exorbitant. Yet this is not an excuse for sticking on the wrong track. We've already witnessed unresponsiveness toward tuition increase; we just can't let another specter called apathy hinge upon the multi-million dollar bill of Union South II.
Reminiscent of Union years, some alumni and faculty staff initiated a wiki space for the stony giant. Stories started from 1971, the very first year of Union South, through 2009, the last days of its service: laughter by the bowling lane, psychedelic print on an old carpet, a stellar list of performing bands and your first encounter with your husband. What's done cannot be undone, yet we can still put a brake on what's being wrongly done. Union South should not merely be a faded piece of memory, but also a constant reminder of cherishing what we already have.
Qi Gu is a freshman intending to major in journalism. We welcome your feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
