The Associated Students approved a layout plan for the Peiffer Lounge coffeehouse at yesterday’s meeting.
The design of the coffeehouse approved by the council will leave the Peiffer Lounge student memorial wall intact, and will place a circular service counter between two existing doors in the lounge. A service window will also be installed so that students will not have to enter the lounge to buy coffee.
An amendment to the coffeehouse proposal was also voted down by the council at yesterday’s meeting.
Executive Vice President Tim Roberts tried to amend his motion from last week’s A.S. meeting, which guaranteed that the memorial wall would not be moved when the coffeehouse was built.
Roberts said having the freedom to move the wall would give the council more choices among proposed designs for the coffeehouse. Two of the proposed designs would have left the wall where it is, and the other two proposed designs would have moved the wall to another location in Peiffer Lounge.
Public speakers in favor of the memorial wall spoke against Roberts’ amendment. James Wood, chairman of the sociology department, said reconsidering the vote was wrong.
“This is like losing the Super Bowl on Sunday and wanting to replay it on Monday the vote should stand,” Wood said. “I urge you to keep the wall memorial as it is.”
Pedro Anaya, a representative of the College of Sciences, spoke in favor of Roberts’ amendment, saying that the option of moving the memorial wall would make the Associated Students’ decision about the design easier.
“We can see more clearly what we want to do with the coffeehouse. We can look at our options more clearly,” Anaya said.
Gina Paoni, a representative of the College of Business, said it would be better to limit the options for the design of the coffeehouse to the the two that leave the memorial wall intact.
“We have two great options that keep the memorial and keep everyone happy,” Paoni said.
Scott Rugh, who was on the committee that organized the assembly on the wall, said he still wants to see Peiffer Lounge remain a study lounge, and he said other students he has talked to feel the same way. He said he wished there could be more student involvement in the operation of the coffeehouse.
The Associated Students also passed a motion naming the nearly completed recreation center the Aztec Recreation Center. The Aztec Recreation Center is part of the Student Activity Center, which will be completed in May 1997.
Sean Rider, a representative for the College of Arts and Letters, complained about a column which ran in The Daily Aztec opinion section yesterday called “‘Tis the season to beat women,” by John Walters.
“(The article) is an abomination to everything the university represents. Domestic violence is not a subject for parody,” Rider said. “This kind of nonsense cannot be tolerated.”
Anaya said that he thought the column was insensitive, especially because of the violence that occurred at SDSU during the summer.
“It’s very insensitive, considering we lost three of our engineering professors,” Anaya said. “The whole article is very insensitive to victims of domestic violence and the families of the professors who died.”
Carlos Razo, A.S. vice president of external affairs, said The Daily Aztec staff has the right to print whatever it wants and that the Associated Students supported that right in the Resolution on Student Expression, which it passed Nov. 20 after an anti-Proposition 209 flag-burning incident in Aztec Center.
John Walters could not be reached for comment.
