LETTER: TSC is an embarassment

To the editor:

    I read, with great interest, the article in the Wednesday, Oct. 27 edition of the Statesman entitled “Tolson shares plan for future recreation center.” I was excited to read that President Tolson sees the major hole on campus that we call the TSC, and promises that the recreation center will be “everything the TSC is supposed to be.”

    The Taggart Student Center (then-referred to as the student union) was pushed starting in 1947 by student body president Lyn Larsen, among other important folks. Students, administrators, the Board of Trustees, and the Alumni Association saw the pressing need for a student union; opting to forgo support for new dorms in favor of the plan. This student-focused building was to have a cafeteria, game rooms, a barber shop, a ballroom, and offices for the student government. Finally, in December of 1952, the student union was cleared for use – just in time for a Christmas ball featuring the Al Sedgley orchestra and Shirley Lamb.

    Since that time, the student union has been extensively remodeled, added to, and re-named the Taggart Student Center. It has also come to be an embarrassment to student centers everywhere. The most obvious difference between the TSC and other student centers is that the game room consists of a ping-pong table on the third floor. Besides that, doing anything remotely student-related (beyond paying bills, buying books, and eating) requires the event host to jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops and most likely empty his or her (or their club’s) wallet. That is, if the host is not ASUSU.

    A student center should be just that: a student center. On most campuses this area is run, for the most part, independent of administrators. Students flock to these buildings to eat, meet friends, play games, study, promote their clubs, and hold events. They are not administrative office buildings and they are not where outside entities get first dibs on meeting space.

    I support the creation of a new student center; call it what you will. The TSC has been overrun with the day-to-day business of a university and seems to have forgotten that it bears the words “student center” in its name. However, we as students must be in the loop. Who exactly is going to pay for it? What is going to prevent the recreation center from becoming the next TSC? What will its policies be?

    There are still questions that I hope are running through President Tyler Tolson’s head. Implementing an entire building is a huge legacy to leave, President Tolson. Please think through what is best for the students, and how to ensure that the recreation center will remain student-centered in 50 years. Make your legacy last.

Carl J. Aldrich