A petition to stop construction of a new telecommunications hub in the Art building was presented to President Richmond yesterday by a group of students trying to save what they say is the art department's most valued gallery space.

The petition, which contained 689 signatures, asks President Richmond to intervene and find an alternative location for the project. It was sponsored by Cyrus Smith and Justin Mitman, co-directors of the Student Access Gallery, and was accompanied by over 50 letters from students and faculty. Richmond is expected to make a decision on the matter this Friday.

The construction project calls for the conversion of an 8-by-12 foot space in the foyer of the Art building into a fiber-optic communications hub, with work set to begin next week. The problem is that the space is part of the Foyer Gallery, one of four galleries SAG runs on campus.

SAG considers the Foyer Gallery to be its most important gallery Most of its exhibitions are three-dimensional site-specific installations, meaning that they are designed to fit in the space of the gallery.

Art senior Colleen Sidney has spent six months designing an installation that is supposed to be her senior project. It was scheduled to go up next month.

"I was granted this show last spring," she said. But if the gallery loses the disputed space, all her work will be lost.

The communications hub will not take up the entire gallery, but there would no longer be room for three-dimensional art. It could only be used for art hanging on the walls. The rest of the space would need to be kept clear to comply with fire codes.

According to project manager Steve Haag, the construction project is part of a CSU-wide telecommunications infrastructure upgrade. When CSU engineers chose the space for the installation, they thought it was unused space, because the building blueprints only labeled that area as a lobby. They did not know that it was used as a gallery by SAG.

And although the project has been in the works for several years, the art department was not notified until this summer, and SAG did not find out about it until last Thursday because of a communications breakdown within the art department.

Since then, Smith and Mitman have been doing everything they can to save the Foyer Gallery. And while they believe that Richmond understands how important the gallery is to art students, the biggest obstacle right now seems to be finding another place to put the communications hub.

SAG is an Associated Students-sponsored program that was established in 1986 to give student artists interested in a career in art an opportunity to experience working in a professional gallery setting.

The Foyer Gallery has been used for art exhibitions for over 30 years, and has been part of SAG since 1991.

"The great thing about the Foyer Gallery," he said, "is that it's under the roof of the art department, and that's how we can be free to do whatever we want to do without having any misgivings from the public."

SAG's other three galleries are located in Karshner Lounge, Windows Café, and the Student Health Center. Next semester it will also be displaying work in the new lobby of the Student Business Services Building. However, these galleries are not purely for art use. Because of this, the content of works displayed in those galleries can be an issue.

Smith says the Student Business Services gallery is "more of a beautification project than an art gallery." The Foyer Gallery is the only space on campus where student exhibitions can enjoy complete artistic freedom.