Word: auburns
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...asserts that its capital campaign is open-ended and will produce valuable funds even if the purchase of 45 Mt. Auburn never materializes. But this logic fails to consider that, while collecting $6 million from recession-pinched alums for the clear goal of a building purchase is difficult enough, trying to raise the same amount with only a vague appeal to “social space” would be flatly impossible...
Social space at Harvard is a real problem. But the Undergraduate Council’s potential purchase of 45 Mt. Auburn Street is an even bigger one. While admirably motivated, the plan is not a feasible solution and should be abandoned immediately. We commend the UC for working to solve the important issue of social space on campus, but its fixation on purchasing this particular property is unwise...
...Should the gods grant the UC the money (and the legal status) required to purchase 45 Mt. Auburn, it still would not be out of the woods. The price of the building itself is nowhere near the end of the expenses this initiative would incur. In the unlikely event that the building can be purchased, there will still be substantial renovation costs to meet. Architects have estimated that the total costs for these upgrades would be approximately $500,000, yet another large sum the UC must feel capable of paying. On top of everything else, there has even been talk...
...Given what the UC stands to pay and what it stands to gain, it seems safe to say that purchasing 45 Mt. Auburn may not be the best idea possible. Current plans seem to call for the UC to shell out millions of dollars for a partial share in a decaying building. Under the current proposal, the building’s top two floors would remain inaccessible to the UC, leaving only the ground floor and basement, which requires heavy renovations to be usable. Even if the project did succeed, the potential improvements to student life to be derived from...
...these are distant concerns given the more immediate problems associated with the purchase. The UC’s misguided attempt to buy 45 Mt. Auburn is likely to fail, and such a failure would diminish the UC’s already scant credibility and distract it from important items on its agenda, such as responding to the massive budget cuts sweeping the university...