by Jennifer Onuska
ASUNM President
and Lorena Olmos
GPSA President
When will the Student Union Building be ready and what can you do about it?
That is the question on everyone's mind. By now we should all be aware of the obvious delay. As your student leaders, we are concerned about this and can assure you that we're doing our best to find an equitable solution.
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In fact, last Wednesday, the vice president of Business and Finance, Julie Weaks, shared her newly developed plan to ensure the SUB's completion as soon as possible. The first step in the plan was to appoint Don Knox as the construction manager with the mandate of establishing a construction timeline and completion date. Knox will also oversee the project and ensure its steady pace while reporting weekly to Weaks.
From the beginning, Silver Construction has claimed delays due to unexpected problems. However, we have already gone an extra semester without our SUB. The expected completion date was August. Due to an unanticipated delay, we were expecting to be fully operational in January 2003 to welcome the spring semester. Now it is highly doubtful that this is a realistic goal.
We understand and have felt the frustration of not having the SUB. Services that are normally housed in the SUB have been largely unavailable if not inaccessible. We will be forced to continue using the big white tent instead of having food options that are usually in the SUB. Also, student groups who were allocated space in the SUB last semester will remain homeless until the completion of the SUB.
Programming is also at a standstill due to the delay. The Associated Students of UNM Southwest Film Center relocated to a temporary location in the Center for the Arts when the SUB went under construction. However, the Southwest Film Center is handicapped because of its remote location. It is also limited to the use of 16mm film and video, a format not typically released by most distributors. Due to the SUB delay, programming for the film center will continue to be a difficult task.
As the constituents directly affected by these delays, you should have a voice. Ultimately, students are the ones who are funding this project. We need you to voice your frustrations and concerns to the administration.
ASUNM and the Graduate and Professional Student Association will be holding a forum with Weaks and Don Knox on October 29, from 4-5:30 p.m. in Dane Smith Hall, Room 127. Please come and express your concerns.
We look forward to working with you in order to find an acceptable solution.
