The Faculty Senate meeting last Wednesday night teemed with unfamiliar faces of uninvited guests. Though they were not asked to speak nor was their presence even acknowledged, students showed up in droves to bear witness to what could have been a new major roadblock down the path to constructing Milstein Hall.

Architecture students want Milstein. While they’re not picketing, staging sit-ins or throwing their t-squares up in the air in fits of rage, the mere fact that they showed up is something of which the University should take note.

At the meeting, professors from various departments came to propose a resolution to pause the construction of Milstein in light of the economic crisis. The resolution represented a climax of a battle that began on Jan. 30 in the pages of this newspaper. The letter to The Sun, supported by 25 signatories, including 20 University professors, accused Milstein of being an extravagant expense and primitive in its design. The debate that ensued was something that Kent Kleinman, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, lauded as “a remarkable show of collective will.”

Yet at this point the decision whether or not to build Milstein is not to be made by the faculty nor the students, but by President Skorton himself. To be frank, we’d be surprised if the University scratched its plans that are over a decade in the making. As we move closer to breaking ground, however, the current fervor highlights how problematic the Big Red tape wound around Day Hall can be.

Thus, it is the discord that exists at all levels of the University that really worries us.

It is clear that a blatant lack of communication and transparency is at fault and is reason to be skeptical of those in charge. Indignation over plans for Milstein reflects more so a general air of confusion, neglect and exclusion, rather than definable problems with the building itself. Cornell’s intellectual resources should be pooled together to overcome economic hurdles and a lack of communication from the top down has strayed us off a productive path.

Much of the polarizing debate that took center stage at the Faculty Senate meeting reflected uncertainty surrounding the University-wide construction pause announced on Oct. 30, 2008. The initial ambiguity of the announcement and a failure to communicate the details of its implementation incited much of the outcry that has arisen in recent weeks.

Last weekend, Cornell Press Relations told The Sun that Milstein Hall was “a unique exception” to the pause, citing that the project would go forward “because it has the funding already” and was “deemed to be a mission-critical project for the University.” Just the next day, however, Vice President Stephen Golding issued a contradictory statement in a letter to The Sun. The projects being affected by the pause, he wrote, would in fact include Milstein Hall, subjecting the plan to “comprehensive review.” Though Golding omitted what the “review” would entail.

Cornell is in a dire situation with respect to its finances. The details regarding the future of a project that will cost upwards of $52 million must be clearly communicated to everyone at every level of the University — students included — in order to ensure that dialogue being spurred is not an intransigent fight but rather progressive discourse.