OPINIONS
The Beacon — www.upbeacon.net ! 11
Rank the capital improvement projects
!"Sound improvements-" !"Cove ventilation: !"Seating improvements-" !"Hand dryers-" !"water refill stations-"
What is important to YOU?
equipment for KDUP and CPB buy new windows or investigate other ventilation options seating options for East Side Quad, addition of picnic tables added to more buildings added and improved for easy water bottle filling
Want to have your voice heard? Cut this out, rank these choices and turn it into your Senator
Samantha Heathcote| THE BEACON
ASUP’s top five: Capital disappointments Every year ASUP spends part of our student government fees, amounting to almost $20,000, on capital improvements for the university. This week a list of nine projects was whittled down to five, as ASUP senators voiced student preferences. In considering the final five projects, it is important to think about which projects will im! prove the lives of the most stu! dents. The four projects taken off the list included: library improve! ments, replacing the chalkboards with white boards in Buckley Center, a large-scale composting tumbler and improvements to the crosswalk between the baseball field and Fields and Shoenfeldt halls. The five remaining projects include: adding air blade dryers
in bathrooms, adding more wa! ter refilling stations to buildings, sound equipment for CPB and KDUP, new ventilation in The Cove and adding more seating in the East Side Quad. The addition of air blade hand dryers would be a step toward increasing the sustainability of the campus; however, what is the point of installing dryers if the paper towel dispensers remain? When the new dryers were in! stalled in Shiley Hall during its renovation, paper towel dispens! ers were also installed. Many students still use the paper towels instead of the air dryer. There! fore, it is unlikely that installing more dryers would help conserve paper towels. Adding more water bottle re! filling stations would be helpful to students and faculty. These
new refilling stations make it easier to fill water bottles. With the ban on bottled water enacted last year, these refilling stations provide an alternative to buying bottled water elsewhere. Howev! er, since there are already several refilling stations, The Beacon believes this would be a futile capital improvements project. Sound system improvements for KDUP and CPB could be valuable to students for listening to the campus radio station and attending CPB events. However, these improvements would not have as great an impact as other possible improvements would because they would have occa! sional benefits instead of benefits that students could access every day. Moreover, CPB already re! ceives nearly $60,000 from the ASUP budget.
Ventilation for The Cove would benefit students who smell like food hours after they leave. This improvement would benefit a large amount of students who frequent The Cove as a main stu! dent social and eating area. Finally, the addition of more seating in the East Side Quad area would benefit a limited number of students, mostly ones who reside on the east side of campus. This project also would seem to have less impact than the other projects being considered, and would be used infrequently because of weather. The list of capital improve! ments includes five projects, that would to an extent, benefit stu! dents. Students should make sure to make their top choices known to the executive board which makes the final decisions on cap!
ital improvement spending. Although some of these proj! ects have merit, The Beacon feels that this is not an adequate top five list of possible improve! ments to campus. We feel that more ideas should be consid! ered, such as installing more outlets around campus, improv! ing drainage on campus, creat! ing another safe crosswalk for students across Willamette Bou! levard near Shipstad Hall and reinstalling the soda fountains in The Cove. The capital improvements fund is a large amount of money and The Beacon feels that none of these projects are worth it. " "
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The editorial reflects the majority view of The Beacon Editorial Board. The editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the collective staff or the Administration of the University of Portland. Other submissions in this section are signed commentaries that reflect the opinion of the individual writer. The Student Media Committee, providing recommendation to the publisher, oversees the general operation of the newspaper. Policy set by the committee and publisher dictates that the responsibility for the newspaper’s editorial and advertising content lies solely in the hands of its student employees.