It’s not often that candidates in an A.S. election agree on something. That’s what makes the current consensus about student control of facilities they fund so unique.

At most university campuses, students own the buildings they voluntarily vote to build. At UCSD, students retain no authority, only symbolic and impotent “advisory” boards that beg and whimper to administrators.

The University Centers Advisory Board, which provides advisory input on the operation of Student Center and Price Center, is one example. The facilities currently serve as a fiefdom of acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life and University Centers Director Gary R. Ratcliff. Though students do have a majority on UCAB, they don’t do much beyond serving as a rubber stamp.

For the most part, Ratcliff has done a commendable job. But there’s no reason to assume his successor would as well; organizations must be built around positions, not the personalities filling them, and the current setup gives the university centers director no incentive to actually care about what students want.

UCAB may be the best-case scenario. The sports facilities, for example, went nearly a decade without advisory student oversight, in violation of university policy.

In 2003, students voted to fund the Price Center expansion; yet they now have little direct control over what the final building will look like. Instead, they must trust Assistant Vice Chancellor of Facilities Design and Construction Boone Hellman and another symbolic advisory board. It’s hard to believe that students couldn’t do better by donning the construction hats themselves.