vari hall... the final frontier!

so, the other day the vari hall heritage preservation committee held their unveiling of the nomination of vari hall for heritage site protection!

from what i hear there were balloons and treats, and students in general were interested to hear about the nomination--mainly because a lot of students didn't KNOW that vari hall was slated for renovations in the first place.

remember the poll the excalibur did, which overwhelmingly 'proved' that students wanted vari hall changed(we wrote about that here)?? guess the sample size of that poll?
go ahead. guess. 50,000 students are at york, so how many people do you think they polled?


50.

doesn't really seem like a good representation of what 50'000 other students would want, does it?

i had to do a little digging to get that number, but i had to do a whole lot more digging to get this little tidbit: the university probably isn't allowed to renovate vari hall without the blessing of the varis. that sometimes happens when philanthropists make massive contributions to universities and have their names put on buildings.

so the varis and the vari foundation are a key factor in this whole "save vari hall" fight. i'd be willing to bet that if the varis knew students were opposed to this reno, they wouldn't back it.

i got this anonymous comment the other day about vari hall:

"It would look horrible if it had tables and chairs in it and it wouldn't have nearly the same outstanding effect to new students. I remember that first time I came to York and walked into Vari Hall and looked up; it had that "wow" factor....[renovations] would be a slap in the face to the prestigeous architect who designed it. No, renovation would not be a good idea."

it's true. vari hall is the one spot at york university that actually looks decent. in fact, it's a beautiful space that only york university would try to ruin. it's a student space, and at a university with such a massive student population, a wide open space is necessary.

have they thought, even for a second, about what renovating vari hall would do for congestion? imagine chairs and plants in your way when you walked through vari hall at 2:30?? it would essentially be like trying to get off the titanic, but worse.

so, if you go to york/work at york you should let george and helen vari know that this renovation is NOT in the best interest of students and that students haven't been asked(well, except those 50).

this is the phone number and email for the george and helen vari foundation(this is not a personal email address OR phone number, and both are available on the internet).

416-920-9123

varifoundation@rbs.rogers.com

save vari hall!!!