Students can now access an online poll from their MyCalPoly Portal to vote on whether or not to increase fees in order to rebuild the Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU).
Results from this vote will represent the students’ voices when Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong makes the final decision on the UU project.
If the plan is approved by both students and Armstrong, tuition for the next 30 years could be raised by $199 per quarter, according to Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors Vice Chair Jana Colombini. The fee increase would not take effect until 2020.
ASI created several “street teams” comprised of student government members, ASI student managers and UU Advisory Council students, to spread information about this vote to the student body.
“We want to take this information and present it to Armstrong and make sure it’s an accurate representation of what students want,” Colombini said.
The proposal came from a UU survey conducted last spring to gauge interest in a new or different UU, Colombini said.
While not all amenities have been specifically designed yet, the new UU has been guaranteed to include a bar and grill, an expanded coffee space and room for an expanded Cross Cultural Centers.
Other additions are outlined on their proposed project website.
However, this proposal has received a lot of negative feedback from students as well, including criticism from environmental management and protection senior Kyle Jordan.
Jordan, a former ASI presidential candidate, researched different aspects of the UU proposal by reading the developer’s report and talking to ASI before deciding that this proposal is not what students need.
“The high price of college reduces access to a better life for people in lower socioeconomic classes, and we will only further reduce the diversity of college life here on campus if we keep raising fees,” Jordan said in an email.
Based on the given fee increase, students will have to pay an additional $2,736.84 in University Union fees over the course of four years.
“Make your decision as if you would have to pay next quarter, because four years from now, 21,000 students will be in your position,” Jordan said.