The decision to re-open the W.T. Young Library came and went and is already out of the spotlight. But the best path may have been left unexplored.

The urgency students put on the matter pushed everyone from the Provost to the students and Student Government to make a decision quickly. The effort is commendable. But at what cost has the university re-opened what SG believes to be the “finest library in the country?”

SG President Tyler Montell said he thought the best option was to re-open the Fine Arts Library — so far so good. We agree.

He said he didn’t think students needed all the services of the W.T. Young Library throughout the night — agreed on, again.

It wasn’t SG or Montell who fouled up the decision. Not entirely.

“After the forum and hearing the student’s opinions, we found that the students needed all of those options,” Montell said.

Needed is extreme. Students wanted those options. They need a place to study and work on (and print) papers at night, but five stories of resources at 4 a.m.? At what cost? Well, the library closed to save $700,000 dollars according to an article in the Kernel about a month ago. Students need to realize that while the university is a multimillion-dollar operation, you can’t just pull $700,000 out of a hat. SG has donated $10,000 to help sport the bill. Only a few hundred thousand to go.

Montell said he wanted to open the Fine Arts Library instead and sacrifice some of the services for the “economic climate” the university is in. When Montell held the first forum, he should have explained “economic climate” to those students who wanted to hold the sit-ins and stick it to the man for closing the library.

Times are tight. It is great to see student passion, but just log on to the Internet and type in “DOW” to find today’s economic plunder. It is hitting Kentucky as hard as anywhere. And while students should be vocal, they should also be understanding.

It’s not just the students to blame. Most students know little about the financials of the university, believing their tuition pays the salary of Billy Gillispie (it doesn’t) or that President Lee Todd didn’t deserve his “bonus” (which was really just a part of his pay roll). At some point, the administration needs to explain to students, “We just don’t have the funding.”

And the administration could have done that, had they not insisted on keeping the news of the re-opening quiet for days after they had essentially made a decision. When asked if the administration had thought of opening up a smaller library instead of W.T. Young Library, UK President Lee Todd said they had not, but acknowleged it should be discussed as an option.

Operating behind closed doors, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy and the rest requested Montell and his staff keep quiet about the resolution while they worked out the details.

Keeping quiet allowed students concerns and rage to build, creating another forum and allowing unproductive discussion. What good was a forum when the administration had already decided?

“I wanted to be able to get it out there and get it reported as soon as we could,” Montell said recently.

Montell had the right idea. He said this was bigger than anything he has ever seen SG deal with. There should have been more public discussion that involved more forums and more student opinion but also a little more administration-student dialogue.

“We’re never going to be at a place where we can say there is no more we can add to a situation,” Montell said — agreed.

But we could at least make sure that every option is explored before we cap off the resolution.