The Facts: The Atrium renovation, a part of the Talley-Atrium project, will not be completed by fall 2010 as the fee campaign and University promised.

Our Opinion: Student Senate wasn’t a good watchdog on the reality of the fee proposal, but it has an opportunity to do what is best for students and withdraw its support of the fee at its meeting Wednesday.

The Talley-Atrium renovation project has taken another wild turn as it prepares to face final approval at the Board of Governors meeting Feb. 12. After reviewing the project timeline, the University has determined that the Atrium portion of the renovation project will not be complete by fall 2010. In fact, the transformation, which was at the center of Student Senate’s rationalization for the fee proposal, will not be complete until spring 2011 – perhaps, even later. Students were assured that a vote for Talley, and the $83 fee that came with it next year, was a vote for a new and improved dining facility this fall. The University lied to students to gain their support and patronage for the new facilities. Nothing else truly explains the ineptitude of the situation. Instead of eating in a newly renovated dining area next semester, students will likely be forced to eat their meals from Chick-fil-A and Lil’ Dino’s on tables beneath Harrelson Hall or in a giant pod-like tent erected in the Brickyard – the two likely solutions to the seating problem. Similarly, Student Senate was lied to about the timeline for the Atrium reconstruction and passed that information along to students. It can’t be blamed for that, but certainly should assess why it didn’t question the University’s ability to finish the construction during the 90-day summer period as the original plans proposed. Students shouldn’t chastise Student Senate for this error, but it needs to take some immediate steps to remedy the situation. For starters, Senate must immediately withdraw its resolution in support of the Talley-Atrium fee at its next meeting. A majority of students didn’t want the fee to begin with. The number who approve would drop well below the 40 percent the referenda showed if students had known at the time that they would be forced to eat outside for the majority of the next academic year. If the first stage of the overall project – and a very small one at that – is a full semester, or more, behind schedule; just imagine how many delays the four to five year Talley modernization will face. For students’ sake, Senate must lead the charge against the fee and get the University to reevaluate the project under the direction of Dan Adams, associate vice chancellor from campus enterprises, who led the construction of the student center at the University of Arizona. Otherwise, students will be left out in the cold – quite literally