A shroud of confusion covered the EMU Friday, as students and leaders tried to react to what just happened. On Thursday, ASUO President Ben Eckstein chose, after consulting with various student groups, to postpone what would have been the student vote on refurbishing the EMU.
And while we understand why Eckstein and others had grievances, the way they went about responding to it was inappropriate and not in keeping with a professional body.
The story breaks
We knew this was going to be a big story Thursday evening when Outdoor Program coordinator Dan Geiger@@http://pages.uoregon.edu/dgeiger/@@ came to our office to speak to us after finding out about the postponement on our website. Geiger took on an additional role as a renovation director when the discussions started with architects for the new EMU — he has acted as a primary communicator between the architects and the students, faculty and staff that make up the User Group.
“We got no info at all that Ben had decided … I received it at three (on Thursday) when it was posted to the ODE,” Geiger said.
The situation, as it stands, is that students will still vote on the Student Recreation Center fee starting one week from today, Nov. 14-18, and the EMU vote is tentatively taking place in spring term along with the general ASUO elections.
Developing agreements
Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes@@http://vpsa.uoregon.edu/biography@@ shared the experience of learning about the postponement. Holmes told the Emerald that she, Eckstein and ASUO Vice President Katie Taylor have been working since August on “a variety of understandings.” She added that the collaboration seemed to come up with an agreement early on as to the language of the referendum.
Over time, Holmes and Eckstein continued to have several conversations on the topic, while Eckstein’s common concern was about a lack of student involvement. During the process, the pair was working on a memorandum of understanding which detailed the terms of their agreement on the issue. However, they couldn’t come to an agreement on the issue of governance.@@couldn’t?@@
“We were working on an agreement for several months; we did not agree to several parts of the student involvement in the design process,” Eckstein said.
A couple of weeks ago, Holmes said, Eckstein was concerned enough about the EMU part of the question that he felt he should split it. So they resubmitted it as two questions — one for the EMU and one for the Student Recreation Center. This was about the same time Eckstein said his meetings with student groups raised the issue of postponing the question until later in the year.
“The idea came from consultation with those groups. They asked if that was an option we had,” Eckstein said. “At (that) time, we prioritized other options.”
Communication issues
Eckstein had three primary concerns that caused him to finally pull the trigger — student involvement, the issue of student space (which has been mostly resolved) and a possible mid-year tuition hike as a result of shortfalls in the state budget.
Recent numbers indicated that income tax revenues might be down in the middle of the year, likely prompting cuts in higher education, which cause tuition increases.
But before those numbers surfaced, it is clear factions were thinking about postponing the vote as a possibility. And not mentioning that in discussions with high-level administrators is irresponsible.
This is about more than just respecting their authority. It’s about gaining your own respect in the eyes of the professional world we’re trying to establish here. And in this professional world, it’s not fair to announce something to the media before informing a leader on the project.
“It is Ben’s decision, (but) it would have been nice if he would have communicated a little bit earlier that he had those concerns,” ASUO Sen. Vania Loredo said@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/senate.php?a=194@@. “I think students should be more aware of the renovation. It does affect how students are going to pay.
“They should be aware of what is happening, because it is a pressing issue.”
It’s unfortunate project leaders now have to react, but now students should definitely make themselves aware of this project — because it ain’t over.