A celebration in the Brickyard Tuesday marked the kick-off of Rally 4 Talley, a campaign to increase student awareness and input concerning the University’s planned Talley Student Center renovations.

Student Centers President MaryCobb Randall said the campaign’s goals are educating students about the renovations and gauging student opinion about the details of the renovations.

“The aim of the campaign is to educate students about the developments and get their input about the center,” Randall, a freshman in business management, said. “We want it to be a student movement. We want to put the student back in student center.”

Matt Woodward, an organizer of the campaign and a freshman in applied sociology,  said the current Talley Student Center, which opened in 1972 when the University had about 14,000 students enrolled, isn’t capable of serving all of the student body’s needs. He said the only way to have a student center that truly served students would be to have student input, which is largely what the campaign calls for.

“The campaign is an effort to bring the plans and ideas to the students,” Woodward said.

Incoming UAB President Margo Sauter said getting student support for the project is paramount since the fee-dependent renovations will be more costly than other projects.

“The cost will be a lot compared to previous renovations,” Sauter said. “We need the support of students.”

Woodward said making students aware and involved in the process was the only way a new Talley Student Center could become a reality.

“The project wont go forward without the students’ consent,” he said. “We’re trying to show students feel they need it.”

Tuesday’s event was mostly to show students the campaign existed, Randall said. She also said it was a chance to communicate just how dependent on student input the project is and to communicate how important the new center could be to future students, especially to students who won’t be able to use the finished product as undergraduates.

“We’re really trying to show juniors and seniors this can be an investment in the future of N.C. State,” Randall said. “Past alumni have sponsored the completion of the library and other buildings, and we want [upperclassmen] to see this a way for them to leave a legacy.”

Randall said the student fee increases will gradually go up so the students who pay the most for the renovations will receive the most use from the finished center.

“It’s going to be a graduated fee,” Randall said. “The fee is structured so students will be paying for what they’ll receive, comparatively. We’re trying to make it as fair for students as possible.”

Randall said students who won’t see a completed Talley can look forward to renovations of other campus locations in the near future.

“We’re renovating the Atrium and that will be an immediate return for students,” she said, adding she hopes the center will become an icon on campus. “We want it to be a place where alumni can bring their children and for it be a draw for incoming and visiting students.”

Sauter, a junior in mechanical engineering, said the importance of students getting involved at the beginning of the project will allow them to have more control over what the new center will offer.

“We don’t know what restaurants will be in there or what it will look like,” she said. “We’re hoping students will put comments on the Rally 4 Talley web site.”

Sauter said without comments and ideas from students, the administration won’t know what students truly want out of their student center.

“Someone wanted Arby’s,” Sauter said. “So we told him to put it on the web site because otherwise we won’t know what students want.”