The Student Assembly needs to refocus its Webster Hall campaign, which has been misguided and ineffective from its beginning in January.
Saturday night's "Rally to Replace Webster Hall" was the latest example of the Assembly's lack of focus. The Assembly is using faulty logic when it argues that students attended the event because students support the construction of a new building.
The event, which had popular performers and free food, gives the appearance of bribing students to show support for Webster. If the Assembly wanted to show true student support for Webster, it should not have made the evening a social event.
The entire Webster campaign started off on the wrong foot. The Assembly first made an ill-fated effort to "Save Webster Hall." But the administration decided more than two years ago to convert Webster into the new home for the Special Collections Library.
When the Assembly realized saving Webster was impossible, it quietly changed the campaign's name to "Replace Webster Hall."
The Assembly must now go beyond sound bites and pithy campaign slogans in order to have a real effect on the campus debate.
The Assembly's effort to get students to sign a petition supporting Webster is a step in the right direction. Unlike the rally, the petition drive will give the administration a true sense of student support for constructing a building similar to Webster.
The Coalition of Class Officers released a well-researched report on Webster last week. COCO concluded that student programming would suffer when Webster Hall closes.
Given that COCO offered no solutions, the Assembly should build on the coalition's report to make concrete recommendations to the administration.
But there is a more immediate problem for the Assembly to deal with. Webster will be closed soon, leaving the College without a medium-sized programming space.
Even if the Assembly convinces the administration to build a new programming venue, it could be a decade before a new building is finished. The Assembly needs to examine what it can do in the short term.
COCO also concluded that Leede Arena and Spaulding Auditorium are impossible to reserve for student programming. The Assembly should talk to the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts and the Athletic Department about working out arrangements so student programming has better access to these venues.
The conversion of Webster Hall to a library leaves a void on campus. If the Assembly does not begin work soon on a realistic initiative concerning that void, it will forfeit whatever opportunity it may have to push for new programming space -- both in the long term and in the short term.
