The big, nostalgic slogan of the Student Union Initiative is a clever one. It speaks of a time when some 3,000-odd University of Wisconsin students were selfless enough to give $50 each to fund the construction of Memorial Union. It was 1920, and UW was a flourishing flagship university, already achieving greatness in strides. Just as students today take pride in their campus, students in 1920 made UW a priority.
I would like to thank those students from the days of yore; their contribution has meant unfathomable enjoyment for generations of students, alumni and Madison residents.
And now the Student Union Initiative is looking for some goodwill from students nearly a century later. But it seeks to disproportionately burden UW students from here on out with a pricey, poorly thought-out proposal.
The initiative asks students to dish out up to an additional $192 per year — on top of the already steep $650 per year — in student-segregated fees for the renovation of Memorial Union and complete demolition and reconstruction of Union South.
This plan would make some necessary improvements to Memorial Union, but also some frivolous ones, like the expansion of the student lounge and coffee house area.
A new coffee house in a high-density student area? What a novel idea! That is exactly what UW really needs: not a more affordable education, but another place to sip some joe and study. Now why didn't someone think of this sooner?
And as far as the Union South plan goes, the principle makes sense. When it was constructed in the early 1970s, the building — like many other atrocities on campus, such as the Humanities building and Ogg Hall — was intended to only serve students for about 30 years.
But the death sentence of Union South is not something current and future students should have to pay so much for.
The cute Student Union Initiative slogan also notes the $50 each student paid back then amounts to about $500 in today's economy.
Since 1920, however, the cost of tuition has skyrocketed, far outpacing inflation.
And what this catch phase doesn't note is that tuition itself was actually less than $50 at the time the donations were made. So, this would mean tuition back then was the equivalent of less than $500 now. Asking students who are paying more than 10 times that amount in tuition doesn't compare to the student burden in 1920.
So, here's a thought: Why not put more resources and efforts into lobbying alumni who are now in secure, well-paying jobs to chip in? While most of them may not benefit
directly from the renovations and reconstruction, well, neither will we.
Maybe reallocate some of the student-segregated fees from other avenues to lighten the load, cut some of the pork from the plans and generate some more revenue through existing Union events and services.
Had the seg-fee hike this initiative proposes been more modest, this referendum might have been easier to stomach. Had other efforts to garner more cash been completely exhausted, this proposal may seem more reasonable.
Granted, times have changed since 1920. Actually, a lot has changed since then, which is why this initiative doesn't even compare to the donations made by students back in the good old days. Some students gave willingly — in a one-time rush for student action, not an annual burden spanning 30 years. Students today are being asked to impose a dramatic increase in what every UW student will be forced to pay tomorrow — possibly until 2037.
One thing is certain: Year to year, the cost of getting an education at UW is never going to get cheaper, and tacking on additional fees to foot the bill for such an inflated plan is something students should not have to shoulder. Not now, nor 10, 20 or even 30 years down the line.
Carolyn Smith (csmith @badgerherald.com) is a continuing student at UW.
