Finals week is stressful enough as it is. Leave it to Renew Mizzou to make it even worse.

This week and next week, major parts of Ellis Library will be under construction. The Current Periodicals Reading Room and the west reading room will be converted into office spaces for the staff members moving out of Jesse Hall while Renew Mizzou, a building project sponsored by the university, begins its renovations in Jesse and Swallow halls. While the seats are still technically available for studying during finals week, there will be loud noises and a distracting atmosphere, full of ‘caution’ tape and stacked chairs.

First, we should give credit where credit is due. The decision to put the Admissions, Cashiers, Registrar and Student Financial Aid offices in Ellis Library, a central point of campus, was a good choice. For the next year, students will be able to have easy access to the services that would normally be at Jesse Hall. Good job.

But we really have to raise the question: Why now?

We understand this is necessary in order to help the renovation process move faster, but couldn’t you wait just one more week? Ellis Library is a vital tool for students to use during finals week, and it will become increasingly difficult to study by allowing this construction to occur. Would there really have been a major setback if this had been pushed back a week?

Most students didn’t even know this construction was happening until it had already started. We as students have a right to know about these kinds of major inconveniences before they’re actually happening. Send out an email a week or two in advance. Put up some signs around campus letting students know what’s happening. Don’t just start a construction project and expect us to be okay with it.

Another problem that is surfacing is the lack of alternative study spaces. The Missouri Students Association and Campus Facilities are currently creating a list of alternative study areas around and near campus, but none of the proposed ideas are as convenient as Ellis is. Why not set up some tables and chairs in Memorial Union and keep it open for a few extra hours? Why offer study spaces that are off campus when you could very easily create study spaces that are more accessible to students? Instead of offering a solution, you are simply saying “deal with it.”

But all of these problems point to one much larger one.

Renew Mizzou seems to be doing whatever it pleases, whenever it pleases. We have yet to see any real desire by administrators involved with Renew Mizzou to ask for any student or even faculty input. This decision and some others have been made without the input of either students or faculty members, and that’s pretty disconcerting.

Last year, the Museum of Art and Archaeology was closed, and has since begun its move to Mizzou North because of the Renew Mizzou renovations. Many art students rely on this museum for schoolwork, in addition to its frequent visitors from inside and outside the MU community, and now it is being inconveniently relocated to Mizzou North. [In an interview with The Maneater](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2013/11/6/expansions-renovations-isolate-certain-parts-mu-ca/), Nicole Monnier, Faculty Council’s academic affairs committee chairwoman, specifically called out Jackie Jones, the former vice chancellor for administrative services, for not consulting with the faculty before deciding to move the museum. If Renew Mizzou had asked for student or faculty input, maybe the museum could’ve been moved to a much more convenient location for everyone.

Unfortunately, the MU administration is not solely to blame here. MSA is supposed to be the voice of the students to the university. However, every step MSA has taken has been reactionary to what’s happening with Renew Mizzou, rather than proactive. To our knowledge, MSA has not been involved in providing crucial student input to the decisions made on Renew Mizzou.

Now is not the time for the MSA to let things like this slip through their fingers. Now is the time to speak up and tell the university how the students feel about what’s going on. Because, honestly, all we want is a little notice.