Save the Terrace & piers

Sept. 1 UPDATE: Architectural drawings produced by overpaid draftsmen are flying around now. Here are a couple of scary ones (at right). I feel sick as I type this. For one, the tunnel is slated to be removed! Then there is the overall ridiculous floorplan redesign resulting in a smaller shop, remanufactured lounge and chartroom, etc. The "boathouse" will be 10% bigger (woo hoo!)--but the canoes will actually be further from the water. Is it just me, or is that fundamentally retarted? Also, the new lakefront access is apparently off to the northeast, thus providing a poorer view of approaching storms while at the same time offering less protection from the rain!

The lower drawing shows the concretization of the lakefront. Does it remind anyone of Indiana..? This is sick stuff, designed by guys in suits working in high-rise office buildings (with input from deranged Union managers). Frank Lloyd Wright must be rolling over in his grave.

[Original post:] As many already know, Union Director Mark Guthier helped force through a referendum in 2006 slapping all UW-Madison students with an extra $192/year in seg fees for the Union (amounting to an extra $200 million students will have to pay over the next 30 years). The referendum failed twice before finally passing on the third attempt.

The extra fees were supposed to be used to (1) raze and re-build Union South (what a friggin waste), and (2) to renovate any run-down parts of Memorial Union and to bring it up to ADA code (i.e. wheelchair access). Guthier and his delusional, drug-crazed staff have since hatched a more grandiose plan for the $200 million. After all, that's far more money than they ever needed for actual renovations, so they've decided to add a huge, glass "lounge" to the theatre lobby. This will turn the west part of the terrace (above Hoofers) into a sunset-blocking monstrosity.

You can get more info and/or help stop this madness HERE.

Also, come to the open forum at the Union next Tues (Aug 30) if you can and voice your objections.

Help Hoofers get your piece of the pie!

There's a general club meeting next Thursday (8/25) to discuss what Hoofers wants in the way of renovations. A long-time instructor had this to say:

We want.... um, we want more boats! We only have 13 keelboats now! Waaaah! And we want a new shop, and a new lounge. And some new chairs too! Waaaaahh! And a new Lakelab! There's so much money in this booming economy, we want it all! We don't like our old stuff anymore. Waaaaahh! Oh, and we want new computers too--we only have Pentium 4's! Whaaaaaahhh!! (wipes eyes) And did I mention new lifejackets..?

So come to the meeting and get your two cents in. That's about all you'll see personally from the $200,000,000.00 seg fee increase forced through by Director Mark Guthier and his cronies four years ago. But if we get enough people to show up, Hoofers might stand to gain, and that would be good for all the paid hacks around here who rely on Hoofers for a job.

Thank you.

In the shadow of death, new life

Last night a new commodore was elected, more or less by default since the only other real candidate was overseas and couldn't speak on his own behalf. As usual, there was some chaos and confusion leading up to the election, e.g . TITU said the election was at 8 pm, Hoofers was telling people 9 pm, and the chalkboard by the tunnel said 8:30pm--until they changed it to 9 (at around 8:30). The club's facebook site featured a great post announcing the 9pm election--at 8:42pm. Way to go, Michelle! Yes, there was an email too, but who reads their email?

Immediately before the election, an emergency BOC meeting took place to discuss revoking a club membership. The victim was Jack Thorneau (not his real name), who was accused of various rules violations, negative interactions, etc--the typical crap. Of course, obnoxious behaviour isn't allowed in HSC--unless you're a current employee. To help provide the proper creepy atmosphere, Union staffer Susan Dibbell was summoned along with her $88,620 annual salary.

AUG 6 update: In a laughable and kinda creepy move, the time of the post announcing the election has been changed to 6:12 pm on the club's facebook site, apparently to try to make it look like club officers are really on top of things. You can tell the post time was altered because it's the only one out of order. Yes, I am bored, but OMG!