BURNABY — SFU’s long discussed and fully supported $4.4 trillion Rigel 6 satellite campus, which was officially announced last week, is set to be accompanied by an observatory whose $4.4 million price tag has set off a large number of angry SFU students.
While few are against the planned billions-of-light-years away satellite campus located in the far-off Rigel universe and set to be complete in August 3045, concerned students say they feel ‘blindsided’ by the new Trottier Observatory and Plaza.
“Are we really going to spend a few million dollars on a building that just magnifies space a little?” questioned Jill Stevens, a third year communications major. “I can totally understand the practicality of keeping some connection with the new Rigel 6 campus, but can’t we just trust that its getting built and not have to spy on them?”
Stevens’ sentiments have been echoed by many students at SFU who say that $4.4 million seems excessive just for an earth-building.
“In this economy we really need to think about what is absolutely necessary, and this observatory just seems a little excessive,” SFU biology alum, Tyler Deroche, told The Peak. “Hopefully the people in charge of our Rigel 6 campus will be a little more level headed.”
Deroche went on to say that he felt it wasn’t really the observatory that had students so riled up but that they were simply unhappy about the way it was implemented.
“Well, the Starry Nights stargazing program has been around since 2007 so I think we all knew that a satellite campus located in another universe was coming for sure,” he explained, thinking back. “But an observatory? Where the fuck did that come from? Don’t even get me started on the plaza they’ve been saying is going to be built with it . . . this school is getting down-right reckless with its spending!”
While Deroche has said they will fight hard to prevent the observatory, he also stated that he still hasn’t soured on the Rigel 6 campus.
“I’ve supported that from the beginning and I think it has a lot of potential” he said, trying to remain optimistic. “There could be so much great stuff there, it could have it’s own academic quadrangle, it’s own SUB building . . . oooh they could even build an observatory — that would be pretty cool!”
