The Barrett Honors College taking over a bar is like the chess club playing for the ASU football team. It doesn't make much sense.
But the University's attempt to annex the former site of Timberwolf Pub & Grill for the expansion of honors-college facilities is not as exciting as it initially appears.
ASU officials, in true buzz-killing fashion, plan to demolish the building that used to house the pub, located along Apache Boulevard near McAllister Avenue.
The land probably will become office space -- or will be used to accommodate the vibrating massage chairs and big-screen plasma televisions that the honors college secretly uses to bribe national merit scholars to come to ASU.
The real issue behind the Timberwolf brouhaha has nothing to do with the use of eminent domain. The real problem is the Timberwolf situation is just another instance of the honors college excluding students from helping to mold the future of that institution.
The amount of student involvement in the honors-college expansion plans is so insignificant that it would be remiss for me to not give a brief summary of what actually is happening.
ASU officials are transforming the land along Apache Boulevard that used to be Lot 40 into the first phase McAllister Academic Village. The site that formerly was Timberwolf Pub & Grill sits adjacent to this future complex. This land likely will be used for phase II of the academic-village project, which could include expanded housing and program space for the Barrett Honors College. The Arizona Board of Regents approved on June 16 ASU officials' desire to begin the eminent-domain process to buy the land from an owner who is holding out for a higher price than the University wants to pay.
The first question that comes to mind is whether this is an appropriate use of eminent domain, or the right of cities to condemn land in order to take it for public use. A recent Supreme Court decision, approving governments' right to seize private land for business development, has attracted a lot of publicity to this issue.
But the most discomforting aspect of the whole story remains ignored: the objectionable lack of student involvement.
Honors students were not widely informed about BHC's expansion plans and have not been adequately involved in the future of the school. This was particularly the case when the University--without warning--attempted to burden students with a $1,000 fee for simply being enrolled in the honors college.
Shannon Conley, the incoming president of the Barrett Honors College Council, repeatedly said she and the rest of the council desire to increase communication between students and BHC administration.
"The communication with students by the [honors college] council has not been good in the past," Conley said. "And that is putting it kindly."
Conley spoke of creating a newsletter next year to keep students up to date on the future of BHC. She also stated that the council is looking toward improving its own Web site. But ultimately, Conley admitted, the Barrett Honors College Council is going to have to take the initiative to both get students' voices heard and make sure that students are receiving adequate information.
The widespread problem of excluding students' voice is an issue that affects all of ASU, honors students or not.
Ultimately, the choice is ours. We can continue to give ASU officials and our representatives a free pass, or we can do something about it. I sincerely hope we prove wrong my pessimism.
Macy Hanson is a political science and philosophy junior. Reach him at macy.hanson@asu.edu.
