Controversy erupts over plan to close Chancellor Green

The Chancellor Green rotunda has become a source of controversy this winter, as many students responded with outrage to the University's decision — made without soliciting undergraduate student input — to convert the popular cafe to academic space.

Student leaders reacted with surprise and dismay in a Dec. 1 article by The Daily Princetonian that first publicized the plans. Then USG president Spencer Merriweather '00 said he was "very disturbed . . . that no student that I know of has been consulted at all."

In the week after the plans were revealed, students expressed their opposition to the conversion with a petition and with nearly 100 e-mails sent to Vice President and Secretary Tom Wright '62 and East Pyne renovations committee chair Josiah Ober.

Faced with this onslaught, the University decided to open the topic to public discourse, reversing its initial position that student leaders had already provided sufficient input. Calling previous efforts to inform students and solicit their input "insufficient," Wright said Dec. 5, "There ought to be and will be more public discussion on this."

When the future of Chancellor Green was considered at a U-Council meeting Feb. 14, students bombarded University officials with complaints that the administration neither informed students about the plans nor solicited their input.

During a tense meeting that administrators struggled to control, students argued that the two-level Chancellor Green rotunda should continue to serve as a cafe and location for special events, like the annual Salsa Party or Chinese New Year celebration.

Administrators — who earlier in the meeting presented their detailed plans as already finalized and said the issue only appeared on the meeting agenda "by popular demand," according to Provost Jeremiah Ostriker — conceded that additional discussion with students on the proposal would be necessary before renovations would proceed.

Associate provost Allen Sinis-galli said afterward he was "distressed" and "frustrated" by the agitation over what he said should be a decision made by administrators, not students.

During a meeting with USG officers Feb. 22, Ostriker, Sinisgalli and Ober took steps to fulfill the promise made after the previous week's U-Council meeting to consider student input on the Chancellor Green issue.

Ostriker offered to add at least one student to a faculty committee discussing the planned renovations and agreed to hold a public forum to solicit student input on the issue, USG vice president Spence Miller '02 said.

USG president PJ Kim '01 said the outpouring of student concern on the issue meant "[administrators] can't just do business as usual, which is to steamroll it through."