Apparently the Erb Memorial Union is so strapped for cash it can’t afford $10 to buy putty to fill the leaking ceiling in the breezeway when it rains. However, the University is still gung-ho about installing solar panels with money from the “overrealized fund.” The solar panels are not immediately feasible, and the plan needs to be scrapped.
ASUO created a “Bucks for Ducks” contest last spring in an attempt to appropriate $100,000 of overrealized funding for a purpose that would benefit all University students. Because of rising energy problems, the winners of the contest proposed to put solar panels on the EMU roof to save the University money, but progress on the project has been slow.
Money should be used for something more immediately beneficial to students. Although solar panels would be very cost-efficient in the long run, the logistical problems of the panels are too involved. The panels need more extensive planning before they will be efficient enough to cut back on energy costs in the EMU.
In the meantime, students have been stuck with $30 energy fees, footing the electricity bill for the rest of the University. ASUO needs to be more vigilant in fighting the energy fee, because it is negatively affecting students, some of whom are already struggling to pay their own electricity bills this year. Instead of simply asking students to conserve, ASUO should file a lawsuit to stop the Oregon University System from levying the fee. A court in Washington recently found such fees unfair.
Action needs to be taken soon by ASUO on both
accounts. There is no excuse for leaking ceilings when students have been charged with so many added fees this year, and the EMU Board has allocated substantial amounts of money specifically for building maintenance. Energy conservation and student fees are big
issues on this campus, but spending more on solar panels that will not deliver immediate results is not
financially sound.