For as long as U. California-Berkeley students can remember, ASUC candidates of all stripes have been promising to revitalize Lower Sproul. When students voted last April to approve the B.E.A.R.S. initiative, we saw the promise come a huge step forward to fruition. But it would have been naive of us to believe that this would be the end of the political wrangling over the proposal.

Last week, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and ASUC President Noah Stern signed a Memorandum of Understanding that fills in a lot of the gaps in the terms and conditions of the original referendum. In particular, it provides for the campus to compensate the ASUC for its lost revenues during the renovation process. This may prove crucial for protecting the financial independence of the ASUC.

For Stern, recently granted a second lease on political life, this is certainly a victory. In particular, signing the memorandum before last week’s deadline likely saved both money and time for the project. If the campus is indeed going to pursue revitalizing Lower Sproul in such a grand manner, we hope it be done the right way, and meeting crucial deadlines is a big part of that.

However, we are disturbed that even though this renovation of Lower Sproul was long an avowed priority of ASUC figures, the terms and conditions of the B.E.A.R.S. initiative were not binding until an additional Memorandum of Understanding between student leaders and the administration was signed. Thus, students voting on the referendum in April may have thought they were voting on something that appeared to be binding but was not.

This is disappointing on many levels. Students will pay more than a half-billion dollars for the project over its life, so the stakes are high. Considering the amount of time and planning that was put into the B.E.A.R.S. initiative from all sides, it does not make sense to us that a specific, binding initiative was not placed on the ballot so that students would have known exactly what they were voting on. Going forward, student leaders must work to increase transparency as they work to revitalize Lower Sproul.