The Student Senate should not have approved the resolution favoring the implementation of a new fee to pay for the proposed expansion of the Reitz Union.
The proposed fees would (I believe) take effect before the completion of renovation of the Reitz Union. Few, if any, current UF students would still be here when the renovation is complete, yet we would not only have to put up with the inconvenience of dealing with the construction work on the union, but also have to pay fees for a renovation that doesn’t benefit us. I frequently attend the free movies at the union (yea, RUB).
There might be a period where we have to go without free movies while the cinema is renovated — and Senate wants us to pay a fee for that inconvenience. Eating at the food court will be more difficult while the renovation takes place — and Senate wants us to pay a fee for that inconvenience. If the union must be renovated, and if the renovation must be paid for with student fees, then those fees should not be implemented until the renovation is complete. The students who actually get to enjoy the (supposed) benefits of the expanded union should be the ones to pay for it.
Finally, I don’t even think the union needs to be expanded. I can see that the asbestos needs to be removed. By all means, please remove the asbestos from the union. That shouldn’t cost enough to warrant a new fee, though. The Senate bill repeatedly mentions UF’s more than 900 student organizations, many of which do not have office space in the union.
But how many of them really need office space? I’ve held three different officer positions in the Linguistics Society in my time at UF, and we have never had or needed any office space. I can say confidently that no more than 10 percent — and quite possibly no more than 5 percent — of UF’s student organizations would actually use office space. I say, just remove the asbestos and leave the rest of the union as it is.
