Student Union Construction.

[Hammer58]

Hammer the fee for this project was voted on during the '98 or '99 semester as I took part in the vote. The credit for this project goes to the Fossil and the students.

Oh, I'm not arguing the financing, just that it is funny that no athletic projects could move forward until the master plan has every t crossed and I dotted yet these other projects could move forward before the campus master plan was in place.

[LaCajunsFan]

No photographs today as it is raining pretty hard this afternoon. Not much progress this past week because it rained almost every every day. As far as photos or renderings I don't have any and since they have not been made public yet, I don't think they will be. The only thing I can say is that the middle section of the new building will be brought closer to McKinley Street the renovations will be made to the Ball room and Bookstore areas and an addition will be made from the bookstore to where Guillory Hall is ano for a new food service wing. Guillory, Old Corona and old Olivier Halls (the original old student union buildings build ion the late 1950's commonly referred to as the "eyesores buildings) wil be demolished. A plaza area will be built where Guillory Hall is now and landscaping will be placed where old Corona Hall and old Olivier Hall are now.

Thanks for the info.

Do we know if it is a 'done deal' that Guillory Hall is a goner? I've always liked that building, with it's hip, mid-century design. I just think it would be really cool to see it re-habed and given a new life.

At the very least, we should fight to keep the grating over the swamp intact.......that is without question the coolest, most unique place on campus. Who doesn't have fond memories of hanging out there, and/or getting a kick ot of watching little kids feeding fish, etc., there?

Thanks for letting me rant, lol.

[Cajun Monkee]

Hammer the fee for this project was voted on during the '98 or '99 semester as I took part in the vote. The credit for this project goes to the Fossil and the students.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I was under the impression the student fee used to build the original Union never expired and I think these funds (if still around) would have been used for the construction of the new Union. And if this is indeed the case, that's a considerable amount of funding.

Heard this from ex-students older than me (and Zee). And these are people who have no concern whatsoever about a new Union or a new Cajunfield, or new parking garages, or any other new facilities.

In no way I am defending anything, just presenting what may be a fact.

[SlappyCajun]

New Union fee was passed about 10 years ago

[CajunRebel]

Yet, the most visible marketing tool for a university is athletics. Just go ahead and look at the application increases when UL has been successful in athletics compared to when we were not.

Hell, LSU athletics offsets many of the cuts towards academics because they are able to be fully funded and make money for the university. But, we don't want to be like LSU anyway, you know that Tier I university right down the road with an enrollment over 30,000.

You have some numbers that actually show the application increases? I'm not going to get into this again and I've explained my reasoning before but I just don't beleive that giving 6 million dollars to athletics is the best way to spend money to promote the university and increase enrollment. I beleive if you spent 6 million on scholarships to woo the state's best and brightest you'd get more students and a higher caliber of them. And 6 million dollars will buy much more quality airtime than 0-3 nationally televised football games will. Heck with 6 million dollars you could probably run ads during every single bowl game. I'm not complaining about it. But I'm not going to pretend the reason I want to see that money go to UL athletics is because I care so much about UL academics. I love UL and want to see it grow and succeed academically but I don't spend my weekends cheering on the quiz bowl team. I want it to go to UL athletics because it benefits UL athletics.

And keep in mind you're preaching to the choir here. I was the one that recently had a long, drawn out post arguing that in order to compete with other D1-A schools in the future the most important thing we need to do is increase the university subsidy to athletics. Our budget is at the bottom of the barrell because we get bottom of the barrel funding from the State/University. Will it make us self-sufficient like LSU? No. Only a handful of the very biggest programs in the country are self sufficient. But it will put us on a more level playing field with our conference peers which is something UL deserves.

(I think we've derailed this great thread long enough BTW. If the three stooges want to go back and forth with me on all this they can start another thread.)

[CajunRebel]

I don't know anything about anything but I was told a while back by someone at Martin Hall "UL-Lafayette has never maxed out" a little over 3 million was the number I was given. So when I heard Savoie took a 1 million my mind went to 2 million total.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...dy-table_n.htm

This is where I got my info. I know it used to be 3 million. A few years ago David Walker or Scott Farmer convinced the Regents to approve a change to the formula that determines what the max allowable subsidy could be. It was at 3 like you said but after the change it bumped up to ~6 million. From what I understand Tech and ULM have UL to thank for being able to increase their budgets through subsidies as well.

[Boomer]

Been a while guys but I think that we are talking about 3 PERCENT of the total budget that can go to athletics---Some schools were against it because UL with its highest overall budget could divert more to athletics than the other schools!!! And you can see what we are up against--it didn't matter that they could get more into their athletic budget, but it was the fact that UL would benefit to a larger degree and get much more----This is why sometimes things are done behind the scenes----I know people _____ and complain but NOBODY knows this entire situation like T-Joe!!!

[Just1More]

(I think we've derailed this great thread long enough BTW. If the three stooges want to go back and forth with me on all this they can start another thread.)

Turbine, clean this fool from this thread before his mouth gets his ___ in trouble.

[Hammer58]

You have some numbers that actually show the application increases? I'm not going to get into this again and I've explained my reasoning before but I just don't beleive that giving 6 million dollars to athletics is the best way to spend money to promote the university and increase enrollment. I beleive if you spent 6 million on scholarships to woo the state's best and brightest you'd get more students and a higher caliber of them. And 6 million dollars will buy much more quality airtime than 0-3 nationally televised football games will. Heck with 6 million dollars you could probably run ads during every single bowl game. I'm not complaining about it. But I'm not going to pretend the reason I want to see that money go to UL athletics is because I care so much about UL academics. I love UL and want to see it grow and succeed academically but I don't spend my weekends cheering on the quiz bowl team. I want it to go to UL athletics because it benefits UL athletics.

And keep in mind you're preaching to the choir here. I was the one that recently had a long, drawn out post arguing that in order to compete with other D1-A schools in the future the most important thing we need to do is increase the university subsidy to athletics. Our budget is at the bottom of the barrell because we get bottom of the barrel funding from the State/University. Will it make us self-sufficient like LSU? No. Only a handful of the very biggest programs in the country are self sufficient. But it will put us on a more level playing field with our conference peers which is something UL deserves.

(I think we've derailed this great thread long enough BTW. If the three stooges want to go back and forth with me on all this they can start another thread.)

Moe, here.. I'll take you up on your challenge, Elmo, but I'm going to keep it right here. If you wanted another thread you should have started a new thread instead of throwing down a challenge here.

We already offer scholarships to the best and brightest and unfortunately all too often we still lose them to other schools, most notably State. And too many times he reason is related to athletic success. Other than those of you that want to major in 13th century Lithuanian lesbian literature, even most of he high achievers want a college experience that, in addition to solid academics, includes a vibrant campus social life and that includes exciting, successful sports

[Hammer58]

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...dy-table_n.htm

This is where I got my info. I know it used to be 3 million. A few years ago David Walker or Scott Farmer convinced the Regents to approve a change to the formula that determines what the max allowable subsidy could be. It was at 3 like you said but after the change it bumped up to ~6 million. From what I understand Tech and ULM have UL to thank for being able to increase their budgets through subsidies as well.

It was T-Joe himself who led that fight, it was a decision which had to be approved by he university presidents, which makes it all the more ironic that he would then decide that UL should not transfer the max allowed while others such as Tech, mcneese, etc did and reaped the benefits.

[ULGrad@HOU]

It would be great if this thread went back to discussing the construction of the Student Union.

[CAJUNJUDO]

No kidding. I was hoping to see some updated pics from today, but there probably hasn't been much progress due to all the rain.