During a town hall this Thursday, Associated Students President Hieu Le denied allegations that he mislead students when petitioning for his plan to renovate the University Center.

A.S. President Hieu Le presented the UCen Renovation Project during a town hall on Thursday. Lianna Nakashima / Daily Nexus

Several UC Santa Barbara students accused Le of using misleading petitioning methods in March while gathering signatures for the University Center (UCen) Project, including not informing students of the cost of the project and soliciting signatures from intoxicated students.

Le called the accusations “unsubstantiated” during the town hall and said they do “not have any truth behind [them] whatsoever.”

He said that any concerns were “referred onto elections code” and were then dismissed.

Davis Quan, A.S. Elections Board chair, said Le was likely referring to the A.S. Elections Board and that the board cannot release any information until after elections because it is confidential.

Le had previously refused to comment on whether he asked intoxicated students to sign a petition at a party after the Nexus obtained a video of him allegedly doing so.

The town hall featured a panel of individuals involved with the project, including architect Jean Gaff from Pfeiffer Architects and Mark Nocciolo, director of capital development at UCSB.

The panel discussed what the building would look like and ended with a question and answer session.

The panel also presented a three-dimensional model of what the new building would look like.

The “NewCen,” as Le has dubbed the project, would include an expansion into Corwin Pavilion and several “student-focused social spaces” that would make “it feel much more connected to the outdoors,” Gaff said.

“The whole idea is to activate this area so it’s all about the students [to] give it more of a feeling of this is where you want to be as a student,” she told the Nexus in an interview before the town hall.

During the town hall, Gaff explained that the concept is still in very early planning stages and that there has been no “formal report” on the environmental impacts the project would have.

“This is all high level to show you the types of spaces that could be accommodated, the breadth of what you could do in terms of renovations and expansions,” she said.

If students vote yes on the project, student fees will rise an additional $20.40 per quarter from Fall 2018 to Fall 2022. From Fall 2022 to Fall 2052, students will pay an extra $96.06 to pay for the project.

Voting for the UCen project begins April 23.

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Evelyn Spence
Evelyn Spence harbors a great love for em dashes and runs on nothing but iced coffee, Jolly Ranchers and breaking news. She serves as the managing editor and can be reached at evelyn@dailynexus.com, managing@dailynexus.com or at @evelynrosesc on Twitter.