There’s no doubt that Assembly Hall needs some work. The building lacks air-conditioning throughout, bathrooms are only on the ground floor, accessibility isn’t as good as it could be, and the student section is small for the thousands of fans who love the Illini. Members of Orange Krush, the RSO that populates the student section game to game, must send some of their leagues to the nosebleeds of the stadium when their floor seating reaches capacity.

The 50-year-old building, designed by the same architect who created the Krannert Center, has seen little renovation over its lifetime, but that’s looking to change.

Until Tuesday, students had an opportunity to sign a petition, supporting the Re-Assemble Assembly Hall project, which looks to increase the size of the student section, add concessions and bathrooms, build a new entrance, create a student lounge area for better student-access to the games and improve accessibility for patrons. The idea is to leave a legacy for students and alumni who get fired up with energy when history is made — like Tyler Griffey’s last-second winning shot against No. 1 Indiana on Feb. 7.

No doubt, that was an incredible moment, and sports fans, or not. felt what it meant to be an Illini.

The projected $160 million renovations, with a $25 fee per semester charged to students, makes all of this seem less than exciting.

The fee is expected to cover 17 percent of the total cost of the project, and the additional 83 percent is supposed to come from other sources: donors, premium seating and naming rights, for example.

Plans for this renovation have been in the talks for 10 years, but we are now just learning about them. Yet to be revealed are how many decades this fee will be charged to students and how much that fee will increase over that time.

Projects at this scale rarely stay under budget, and one of this magnitude could exceed that by millions of dollars. That could force students to pay this fee and its raises even longer.

A $25 increase isn’t that much in comparison to the $1,458 we will be charged next year per semester, but we take issue with the lack of information provided to students about how long this fee could continue before they were asked to sign the petition.

Wholeheartedly, we believe in this project and what it will do for bolstering this school’s strong sports culture, but we are hesitant to advocate for this fee just yet. We aren’t sure if other avenues for garnering revenue for the Hall were fully explored. We are most concerned about this fee being indefinite, especially if the additional 83 percent of the project’s cost doesn’t come.

If we knew a bit more, maybe we could endorse this hike in student fees, but until we know more, hesitation best describes how we feel about the coming vote in March.