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SSU President Ruben Armiñana
By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana has withdrawn for now his request for a $65 million student center.
Armiñana, who two weeks ago was emphatic that a groundbreaking for the center would take place Oct. 10, said he wants to consult further with students about the center.
“I thought it was appropriate to take the further step,” he said in an email Friday. He had asked on Thursday that the financing request be removed from the agenda of the California State University Board of Trustees, who would have needed to approve it.
The move pleased and also surprised project critics who have fought to stop it and threatened legal action.
“I’m really glad that they are delaying this so we can investigate,” said art history professor Susan Moulton, former faculty senate chairwoman.
Opponents of the project say it is too costly and burdens students financially. They also say that the SSU administration improperly influenced the April election in which students approved a new $300-a-year fee to pay for it.
Armiñana acknowledged that his decision took into account objections by attorneys with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, who said they might have sought an injunction to stop the project.
“The threat of legal action, real or not, always influences a review of the matter,” he said.
A group of students and faculty had asked the Lawyers Committee to investigate their complaints that the election was flawed.
On Friday, some of those critics suggested that Armiñana’s unexpected move suggested he is encountering resistance from CSU trustees.
“There is something going on that nobody knows about and this is an attempt to stall just a little bit before the board of trustees rejects it,” said sophomore Anthony Gallino. He led the student effort against the fee to finance the center.
Armiñana said that’s not the case. If student support remains strong, trustees will give the go ahead when when the issue come back to them, he said.
“If the further consultation with the students is positive, the funding would be approved by the trustees,” he said.
Elected student leaders said that they supported the president’s action and were confident the center would eventually go forward as planned.
“At most, it’s a bit of a time delay,” said senior Alex Boyar, president of the university’s Associated Students Inc. organization, which headed the campaign for the fee.
“I think that the main reason he went forward with it was just to make the campus a little more confortable with the idea and have some additional dialogue,” Boyar said.
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If they do build it, and many have been built this way throughout the CSU system. Then the fees should be applied to all students, regardless of rank or income or social status or race. They all should be charged equally. None of this the rich pay for the poor crap. All should pay equally and those who cannot pay should be denied as is economically justified by the laws of supply and demand.
These people don’t belong in Sonoma State, they belong in NAPA STATE!
Brian:
Nobody, including SSU, is afraid of a lawsuit unless there is something to hide.
Lawsuits bring all the facts onto the table.
So, if SSU is afraid, then they’re doing something they should not be doing. Like spending millions on an unnecessary new building faciilty.
Just like the State wanting to build a brand new court house in Santa Rosa. The existing facility is not shiny, nor brand new, but it does the job just fine. But the government always wants to shower itself with brand new cars, brand new buildings, brand new equipment, and brand new everything.
Government loves to spend money that does not belong to them.
I”ve never seen a government agency so afraid of lawsuits like SSU. Whether it’s the proposed building of the Student Center or some lazy useless employee threatening legal action for actually making them work, SSU always seems to back down like a bunch of scared squirrels. PATHETIC !!!!!!!!!
RECESSION # 2 has arrived.
I guess the people in the ivory tower of academia didn’t realize that. Those guaranteed paychecks they get tend to fog their thinking.
Brace yourselves for further employment cuts. More lay offs are in the works right now.
The students do need a new student center, as many of the current facilities are crumbling. But to have asked thousands and thousands of future kids and parents to pay for a measure that essentially was agreed to by approxiamately 700 students at the time (some of whom were seniors and would not see the fee imposed on them) is ridiculous. Only about 25% of the campus voted and the measure “passed” by a slim margin. Given the financial debacle of the Green Music Center and its’ cost overruns, whats to say the building won’t cost 5 times what they say it will in 2 years when its built. The plan to “fee” students infinitum b/c of 700 past students is insulting to ones’ intelligence.