Rally4Talley organizers have been campaigning outside red tents on the Brickyard all week in an effort to inform students about the project and encourage them to vote in favor of the $83 fee, which would begin fall 2010.

Students will vote Oct. 5 on whether or not they support the renovations to the Atrium and Talley Student Center and as that date approaches, campaigners are doing their best to get students to rally. 

According to Peter Barnes, a junior in natural resources and past student center president, the campaign funding is non-student fee related, non-appropriated and comes from a discretionary fund within the University. 

Andy Lanier is skeptical of the University’s timing of the renovations. 

Lanier, a senior in aerospace engineering, said, “This is the wrong time for this to happen.”

The Atrium’s last update was in 1985 when the student population was 24,023 and Talley hasn’t been renovated since it was built in 1972 when the student population was only 14,000. 

Today, the student population consists of at least 32,000 students.

Marycobb Randall, sophomore in finance and current student center president, said that the Talley and Atrium renovation idea started in 2000 and was delayed until Student Life was published in 2008 portraying the vision the University has for campus.

This year, the University decided that it was time to make some progress with the idea and began the campaign “Rally4Talley.”

“Each year we delay the Atrium and Talley Student Center renovations, the project cost increases by $10 million,” Randall said, meaning the fee students start off paying would be a great deal larger than $83 if the University continues to put off the renovations. 

Barnes said he agreed.  “Regardless of the Talley fee, student fees rise varying between $50 and $100 every year,” he said.

When students pay for college each semester, their tuition goes directly to academics and student fees are dispersed among technology, services like the Wolfline and other student organizations. 

Some students think the University should prioritize projects. 

Hayley Smith, a sophomore in communications, said she feels the University should focus on settling budget cuts, especially since she was a victim of having a class canceled.  “I’d rather have my classes than a new cafeteria,” she said.

Lanier said Talley functions fine and there is no reason to renovate the entire building, the bookstore and the Atrium.

“If anything is going to be renovated, just renovate the lobby of Talley,” Lanier said. 

Others agree that as long as the Talley fee is not wasted on the renovations while classes are being cancelled, then the University should continue to pursue the transformations. 

“I’d like to see renovations made to better the future students of N.C. State,” Julie Whelan, a junior in communications, said.  She also said, “N.C. State has been pegged as one of the ugliest schools in America and I’d like to see that change.”

Whelan said paying the fee doesn’t really bother her but understands each student’s financial situation is different.