H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°A prominent member of the Student Union Design Committee voiced concern to the new Union Council members Thursday that student control of the project has fallen below what was initially promised and is appropriate for the investment student’s have made.
When the vote was passed in fall 2006 to allot more than $100 million in student segregated fees for the new Union South and Memorial Union projects, there were three points on the initiative which are still outlined at unionvote.wisc.edu.
After rebuilding Union South, and upgrading Memorial Union, the third reads “give students control over every aspect of the project and ownership of the final results.”
Dan Cornelius, former vice president for project management on the Union Building Project, said he feels the project has lost its way with respect to this goal.
“Over the course of my tenure last year, I really took it as my job in fulfilling that point; making sure students were involved in every decision and as much as possible that they had control over every decision…over the course of the last few months, student involvement has really tailed off,” Cornelius said.
During the design phase of the building, students were heavily involved in the process, comprising majorities on a design committee that oversaw every major decision, according to Union Director Mark Guthier.
“During the design phase there were meetings that we had 30 to 40 people at, and most of them were students,” said Julie Grove, architect for facilities management.
The Design Committee was disbanded at the beginning of the summer coinciding with a change in the project’s student leadership as well as a new phase of the project.
With finalized interior design plans, the project entered the furniture, fixtures and equipment phase for which considerable progress was made over the summer and is projected to be finalized by October.
While Grove acknowledged this phase was not made as public as some of the other earlier phases of the project, she said she knows a lot of students that were involved in the process.
“I’m totally comfortable with where we are and with our student involvement,” Grove said.
According to Guthier, furniture is not something that would typically receive the extensive student input that was afforded during the design phase of the project.
However, he added that if the furniture, fixtures and equipment phase of the project happened during the school year, the Design Committee would probably have maintained a similar level of involvement as it did during earlier phases of the project.
Cornelius recognized that it is difficult to organize student involvement during the summer months, but felt that plans established in the spring for student summer involvement were not given enough effort.
Increased student involvement is planned now that student’s are back in school, including another Design Committee for the Memorial Union Project.
The new student Union and the renovations to Memorial Union are costing students $96 a semester every year until 2040.
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Ironically, substantial student input was sought (and provided) during the furniture/interior decorating selection phase for the construction of the Student Activity Center.
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$96/semester for an unnecessary building that won’t receive any additional student traffic than the old Union South! Gotta love the Wisconsin experience!
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Props to Dan Cornelius for standing up for students.
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The conclusion that the new Union South will not draw more visitors is patently false. With the far more attractive and functional design and all the new people in the area due to the Institutes for Discovery and other planned projects, Union South will be a far busier place than it was. And it won’t look like a bunker.
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“student�s”
Your copy editing is really going to shit this semester.
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I’d take this a lot more seriously if Cornelius wasn’t such a tool. The only student’s involvement he really cared about in the whole process (having been to some of the meetings for my student org) was himself. He made meetings so boring that he probably scared most of the other students away. Talk about a self-serving jerk…he’s probably mad that his term is done.
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Nobody cared about students’ input the first two times they voted the union initiative down…why should they pretend like they care now?
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Frank - I don’t doubt that the new Union South will be busier, however, the bulk of the increased traffic will most likely not be composed of students. The majority of students have no reason to walk to Union South. Further, Memorial Union has a big thing that Union South doesn’t, the lake. Students will continue to prefer drinking beer while listening to music on the terrace by the lake over walking to Union South. I do hope I am wrong. I would love to see the new Union South get an immense amount of student traffic, especially given the percentage of this project that students are funding.
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A large population of students used Union South and will use the new building. The Engineering campus is filled with students looking for a place to go. In addition, there’s plenty of expansion going on in the neighborhood that will bring even more students. STop thinking that since your campus stops at University Ave, others do as well.
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THE LAKE. In some ways it’s like a mirage. Its influence/enjoyability/memorable views/etc. are so soul-satisfying that we tend to think there cannot be a Union building without it. But, in truth, the Terrace is closed from Halloween until Memorial day, and that’s when most students are in town. The Union is a lot more than the lake ~ however awesome the lake may be!