A resolution that would have the Student Association pressure University officials to allocate space in the Old University Union to student groups will be debated and voted on Monday.
The proposal, which was written by Hinman representative Eric Katz and sponsored by the S.A.’s Research and Planning Committee, focuses on the unused offices in the Old Union, most of which have remained vacant since 2001. Katz, also the president of Binghamton Underground Music Presents – a student group looking for a place to meet – said that the University should utilize the space for student group offices, and his resolution calls on the S.A. to try to persuade administrators to do so.
But according to Karen Fennie, a spokeswoman for Physical Facilities, a renovation project for the Old Union is already in the planning stages, and she was concerned that nobody from the S.A. had contacted her before proposing the resolution.
“I don’t know where he [Eric Katz] is planning to focus his efforts,” Fennie said.
Physical Facilities is the campus department in charge of all campus construction and repairs, and would undoubtedly be involved in any work on the Old Union.
Katz admitted he had not consulted the University Union director about the resolution either, but said he knew that the Union director’s office would be involved in any changes to the building.
“I don’t know what [the Physical Facilities office’s] space in this would be, though,” Katz said. “I was under the impression that this was University Union and upwards administration, but I could be completely wrong about that, I don’t know,” he said.
According to David Belsky, the S.A.’s executive vice president, assembly representatives don’t always do research before they propose a resolution.
“Sometimes resolutions just come and [the authors] haven’t spoken to the administration or even the e-board.”