Saturday » April 19 » 2008
UBC students approve higher fees to pay for new building
Green $120-million student building will replace aging facility
Chad Skelton
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Students at the University of B.C. have voted narrowly in favour of a big fee increase in order to pay for a $120-million student building that will be bigger and more environmentally friendly than the current 1960s-era facility.
UBC's student association, the Alma Mater Society, has been working for the past year on a proposal to replace the aging Student Union Building -- or SUB -- where campus groups hold meetings and students socialize.
The AMS convinced UBC administration to chip in $40 million if students paid the remaining $80 million.
Financing would require each student to pay a special $20 "SUB renewal" fee next fall. The fee would rise by $10 each year after that until 2017, when it would max out at $110.
That fee would then stay in place until the debt from the new building is completely paid off, something the AMS estimates won't happen until 2044.
In late March, the issue was put to UBC students in a referendum.
About 14,000 students voted -- roughly a third of all students -- with 55 per cent voting in favour and 45 per cent against.
AMS president Michael Duncan, a fourth-year math student, said he was happy students voted in favour of the proposal, saying the current building doesn't meet the university's needs.
"It's pretty gross. It was built back in the 1960s and it is a concrete bunker," he said. "It's a very confusing building and hard to get around. ... It's a maze. You can't find where you're going."
Duncan said the society hopes construction can begin on the new building in a couple of years and will be operational by 2014.
It will be built south of the current SUB, so that the old building can continue to operate while the new one is under construction.
The new building will be 280,000 square feet, compared to the current 205,000.
The AMS has pledged that the new building will be energy efficient and friendly to the environment.
However, aside from a few conceptual drawings, there aren't yet any detailed plans of what the new building will look like, or what energy-saving features it will incorporate.
The way the new fee is structured, the current students who approved it will not bear its full, $110-a-year brunt.
The AMS thought that was fair, said Duncan, since most students attending UBC today won't get to use the new building.
Duncan acknowledged many students were opposed to the size of the fee increase.
"Yes, it's a huge fee, but there are ways to justify it," he said.
An editorial on the issue in the UBC student paper The Ubyssey last month agreed that the SUB needed some renovations, but questioned whether such a costly alternative was required.
"There's something to be said for financial prudence," the editorial stated. "And that, sadly, is what the proposed ... plan is lacking."
cskelton@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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