Input, On the House

Lower Sproul Plaza, most students would agree, is something of a wasteland-a lonely, grimy corner of campus whose primary virtue is that its emptiness makes it ideal for dance practices.

It's also hard to dispute that it shouldn't have to be that way: Just up the steps, Upper Sproul teems with students who by and large prefer not to venture off-campus if they can avoid it. Lower Sproul ought to be prime real estate.

The campus's commitment of $750,000 toward the planning process for the plaza's redevelopment is thus welcome news. Even better is the fact that officials' decision to fund the hiring of an architect came without students having to raise their own fees-as proposed in the Student Union Complex Fee Referendum last spring.

That referendum failed because voters recognized that students shouldn't have to buy a voice in a planning process that logically will take their preferences into account regardless. The campus has no financial interest in pouring funds into a student center that students won't use. In competing for top applicants with other, more attractive campuses, it already has every reason to build the best student complex it can reasonably afford.

In any case, our student government officials are paid to represent our voice, not deliver our cash to UC officials. The campus's recent pledge shows that our representatives needn't enter negotiations with their constituents' checkbooks out. Done right, coherent communication of students' priorities for the project should be enough to ensure an end result that makes sense for us and the administration.

We're glad to see the ball rolling on a project that's long overdue. The new funding means we can look forward to real research, blueprints, and ASUC discussion about Lower Sproul that makes more sense than another student-initiated fee hike.