There has been a lot of talk recently about renovating Talley Student Center.A complete overhaul might be a more appropriate term for what the modernist-ugly piece of junk needs, but we’ll go with renovation for the fun of its absurdity.When I think of renovation, I envision installing a couple flat screen televisions, throwing on a new coat of paint and replacing some wires here and there.The Talley proposition is a brand-new architectural unit, no ifs, ands or buts about it. There might be a few 1970s era concrete pillars in the plan, but this building will definitely cost just as much as new construction. Students should understand from the start that this building will cost somewhere in the vicinity of $100 million.This is not an issue of reallocating some campus funds and raising student fees for a couple years. The University will be issuing bonds — essentially taking a mortgage out — on the backs of current and future students.I’m not trying to mischaracterize the program, the goal is to provide students with additional food options, group meeting spaces and other facilities to bring the relic into the 21st century.Nonetheless, we are talking about an $83 Talley fee, a $200 tuition increase, another $19 give or take in run of the mill student fees and the potential for $400 in state mandated health care.That’s an additional $700 a lot of students will have to pay next year. If that weren’t bad enough by itself, financial aid is going to be hit harder than Kanye’s reputation by the additional scholarship burden.A college education that was already unaffordable in this economic climate will become impossible for many students.By itself, $83 is not an egregious sum. If we look at this through the appropriate lens, though, it becomes clear that the fee for next year would be nothing more than a down payment on a long-term mortgage. Generations of students will be paying for this building.To argue that Talley meets the needs of this campus would be comical. The building is a leftover of a bygone era, and must be replaced sooner or later.That’s the key though: this project could be put off a few years.During these dire economic times, the University should focus our fees toward programs that directly aid students to go out into the work force and make their degrees more valuable.Classroom sizes, faculty layoffs and building maintenance should, and must, be addressed before a new student center enters the University’s conversations.I’m not even sure the Talley plans in place are the right ones. Where’s the bar in the new design? The original Talley had a pub in it, a place where students could gather after a rough day of school to refresh and recoup.There is a distinct possibility prohibition will end sometime in the next decade and bring an enormous new revenue source to the University’s student centers. We could actually pay for this thing.Why isn’t the new center being built on Centennial Campus? Talley may be an ugly mess (think of the party you had last weekend), but it’s still a functional building. Instead of gutting it and rebuilding, why don’t we build the new building on the campus of the future?If the need is to build office space and meeting areas, Centennial Campus is just as good a place as any.N.C. State deserves a new student center. But that fact doesn’t outmaneuver the political and economic reality the University has experienced during the past year.Let’s Rally — later.