Certain stories are simply inevitable. Every Super Bowl, you’re bound to read at least one article breaking down how expensive advertising time is. After every election, you’re going to get a piece on the new White House pet. Every month you’re going to be subjected to how bad the Madison police are at finding anything. And every time a building goes up, you’re going to eventually learn how the construction is way over budget.
New Union South, welcome to the club.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the creation of the new union will cost over $7 million more than previously expected, putting the current final cost at $94.8 million. Undoubtedly, that’s some serious coinage, especially for a building that’s more a 2.0 version of its predecessor than anything else, but it’s safe to say that with or without the $7 million, the new union would still fall under the category of “expensive.” However, while it’s easy to predict that this would happen, it’s even easier to predict what will happen next. Let the public outcry begin.
Humans are separated from animals by the ability to dunk a basketball and a race-wide knack for complaining, and while not all of us choose to throw down on the hardwood, we all love to belly moan. Specifically, we all complain about money, and when somebody uses our money for something we’re not 100 percent behind, the collective grumblings rise like a tidal wave. It happens with stadiums, theaters and parks — although rarely with prisons, so I guess that means something — and we’ve already seen it once with the new union when various student organizations rallied against the construction’s cost to students. But this community Scrooge-ness needs to waddle away, not only because the union is going to be built whether we like it or not, but also because it truly will be an asset to this campus.
The old Union South was a mausoleum. The upstairs was sterile and the downstairs felt like that youth hangout where you could bowl, eat snacks and rap about Christ. It lacked the history and location of Memorial Union and never adopted the same role as its older brother. At its heart, a union should be an extension of the university experience, both as a place for learning and social interaction. Unfortunately, the only thing anyone ever learned at the old Union South was how expensive replacement student ID cards are.
The new union is not only an attempt to restore this sense of community, but to boost the social stock of the university as a whole. You can make the argument that this money is better spent on improving teacher benefits, keeping tuition down, or paying for big time football recruits, but those all come and go. If built right — and “right” is almost always synonymous with “expensive” — the new union will be an invaluable addition to the university. Face it, the campus is getting old, and not in the rustic, East Coast way. It’s always felt ironic that the building we call Humanities looks about as humane as an oversized concrete bunker. A university is a brand, and to keep that brand attractive, improvements need to be made.
So yes, the new union is over budget, and yes, much of the additional money to cover that will come from student fees, but this is the compromise we all make when we decide to attend the University of Wisconsin. The university is committed to offering a top-rate education to those who attend, and in turn, we’re asked to help keep it appealing to future generations of students. Even though $94 million dollars can buy a ton of ramen, the average cynic should know the value of a new union exceeds what any of us will pay for it during our time here. And the hardcore cynic should know they won’t really start asking for money until it’s half built, and by then, there’s no turning back.
Sean Kittridge ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism
