It's always been a complete mindscrew for me that state agencies or state-funded entities lobby the legislature in the first place. Just seems like we're spending money to lobby ourselves.

As for their little diagram, I like how the fees don't start til 2014 is a selling point. "Yeah, go ahead, bind future classes with this junk, you'll never pay for it"-that's uplifting.

Maybe if the UO spent less on marketeers they'd be able to build a few classrooms.

I love "student-driven." How's that for an outright lie?

Yes let's spend $135,000,000 in concrete, plastic, and the associated fuel to transport and build this; that's sustainability in action.

Yep. Talking about cost and length of pay off is a real downer and should be avoided.

What's $25,0000 in today's dollars?

You've got a (decimal) point.

A major sticking point for students at UO has been the insistence on the part of student affairs to include a large concert hall in the new student union, a component that dominates the design of the building and adds probably $35 million+ to the cost of the project. The concert hall is designed specifically to be home to the Oregon Bach Festival (which happens in the summer) and other high dollar/high brow events, not at all targeted at students. Simply, the concert hall is a vehicle for more of the good-old-boy donation-whoring status quo at UO. The most cynical, and in my opinion credible, view is that the concert hall is really what student affairs wants, and the EMU was the only potential project on which it could piggyback, at the students expense. While some students have supported elements of the renovation plan, myself included, the concert hall has been universally unpopular with students from day one. They have repeatedly asked that it be removed from the plans in order to reduce costs, a request which has been roundly denied, even as other elements students do want are stricken from the project. The current building contains no concert hall.

One shudders to think how much developer suckage is being performed on the unwitting students at the real estate development firm and political patronage center known as Portland State University.

I"m thinking anyone could make public records requests for contracts between PSU and other state and city agencies, and probably dredge up a lot of reports as bad or maybe even worse than this one. And the county DA up there has a great record enforcing the public records law.

"The concert hall is designed specifically to be home to the Oregon Bach Festival (which happens in the summer) and other high dollar/high brow events, not at all targeted at students. Simply, the concert hall is a vehicle for more of the good-old-boy donation-whoring status quo at UO."

Hey, wealthy socialites like to be entertained!

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/08/university_of_oregon_cancels_c.html#incart_river_default

I'd love to see if a similar document exists ANYWHERE on the hard drives at City Hall (or any other City of Portland building), Metro or TriMet.

Does anyone deny the fact that students can get a quality education without a student union at all, much less an expanded, upgraded, blah, blah, blah one? There is so much crap that universities are building nowadays to entice students to attend that they wind up raising the cost of education for the very students they are trying to help. Sounds like the administrators need to go back to school themselves to learn a thing or two about finance and ethics. Or quit and let someone else take their jobs. Anyone remember Amo DeBernardis, PCC's founding President? His guiding principal was that students came first, and education and career preparation was more important than athletics or other non-academic frills. Amazing man.

Keeping up with the PAC 12

I think they mean keeping up with PSU. Be nice if either place put this much push on turning out better students.

Platinum LEED certified B.S.

Just like every scam in Oregon.