EYE-NALYSIS: WONDERING WHAT’S UP WITH THE STUDENT CAMPUS CENTRE?

By Jordan Press

The more things stay the same, the more RyeSAC President Dave MacLean wants them to change, and this time he has his eye on control over the new Student Campus Centre.

For years RyeSAC wrangled with the Continuing Education Student Association (CESAR), the alumni association and the university administration for a majority control of the centre’s ’board of directors.’

They finally gave up in 1999 and accepted the current makeup of the board, which gives RyeSAC four of the nine seats. With the dissolution of the Oakham House management board this year, all decisions about Oakham will go hand-in-hand with decisions on the student centre.

This also means RyeSAC won’t get all of the profits from Oakham-they’ll have to play nice and share. But that’s not good enough for MacLean and the rest of RyeSAC.

It took about four years for all parties involved in the birth of the centre to accept the current makeup of the board. The proposal was passed by a senior committee, co-chaired by the RyeSAC President in 1999.. Haggling about it now won’t make a difference when the big goal is to get the building up and running on time-a prospect that looks less likely every day.

According to Darcy Flynn, CESAR’s executive director, Feb. 19 is opening day. MacLean said he wouldn’t mind having five votes on the board of directors, but that board would only meet four times a year (if they’re lucky enough to get everyone together every three months).

The real power lies with the centre’s management board, which deals in the day-to-day operations of the centre. Most of the decisions regarding how the centre will run would go through this board made up of 12 voting members, four of whom are RyeSAC . That group would meet each month.

But MacLean won’t get what his heart desires: To boost profits to RyeSAC, which stands to lose about $250,000 a year in revenues from Oakham.

“That is a concern for us, that $250,000 that we’ll be losing on revenue,” he said. “That money won’t [go to] events, but rather it will go into the student centre maintenance.”

Not a bad idea; keep the place designed to bring students together working well. Hopefully the place will get finished and RyeSAC will stop banging their heads against walls that are yet to be built.