CSU-Monterey Bay's President Peter Smith has decided to go ahead with a controversial plan to locate top administrators' offices on the fourth floor of a proposed multimillion-dollar library, partially blocking bay views from a student reading room.

A group of students and library faculty were frustrated after learning of the president's decision to add the offices to the $64 million library. Smith's decision came after his cabinet advised that the expansion would benefit the university financially and socially, university officials said.

"This decision has to make long-term sense for the community and rise above concerns of the moment," Smith said.

Holly White, the university's spokeswoman, said the university would save money by placing the offices within the library, so the school won't have to build a separate administrative building.

Additionally, she said, the move would give students and faculty more access to the president. Currently, the president's office is located in Building 1 across from the campus' main student center. The university plans to tear down the building.

Yuri Beckelman, the president-elect of CSUMB's student government, said students, staff and faculty think the library is the wrong place for the additional administrative offices. Opponents of the office additions attended several meetings with Smith's representative to express their discontent, Beckelman said, but in the end they were unhappy with the library planning process.

"The students are really pissed off that the library's been co-opted by the president," he said.

The proposed office additions will block at least part of students' bay views from a reading room slated for the library's top floor. University officials expect that the office additions will block about 15 percent of the view, White said, but they won't know for sure until the revised architectural drawings are finished.

Opponents of the additions, like Beckelman, have said they believe the offices would block significantly more than 15 percent of the view.

Library planners designed the library with a glass atrium dividing the facility into two portions. One side includes offices and student support services on four floors, with one of the floors underground and three stories above ground. On the other side, designers located study spaces and stacks on the other side of the building, which has four stories above ground, creating wide-open views.

They planned a quiet study area on the highest floor to give students a view of Monterey Bay, but the proposed office additions would add a floor to the other side, blocking at least part of the view.

One unidentified student group designed a pamphlet circulating around campus that criticizes Smith for taking away the view.

"It's your library, whether he likes it or not," the flier said. "Fight for what's yours!"

Beckelman outlined several reasons critics want the library plans to remain untouched, including security concerns, the blockage of ocean views from student reading areas and the increase in the facility's overall price tag.

Library planners estimate that the new facility will cost about $64 million, with $52 million coming from the state and the rest from private donations. Salinas produce giant Tanimura & Antle made a $4 million donation to the project. University officials estimate that the building should be completed in about five years.

Some students worry that it will be difficult to raise the remainder of the funds needed to complete the building, Beckelman said.

Rebecca Bergeon, a library staffer and member of the school's library steering committee, said she thinks there are two major problems with Smith's decision. Architects designed the library with specific services in mind, she said, and would have designed the building differently if the decision to add the offices had been made sooner. She also said she was troubled by Smith's decision to go through with the office additions despite objections.

"There's a pattern of paying lip services to consultants and ignoring the results," said Steven Watkins, another CSUMB library staffer and library steering committee member.

Garrett Barnicoat, a CSUMB student senator, said students are also unsatisfied with the library planning process.

Smith said he's heard from faculty that the process could have been better, but the administration still believes it's a good idea to relocate the offices. Smith explained that the final decision to put the two offices in the library was delayed to give staff time to research whether CSU would allow the additions.

"I can't suggest that there aren't people who aren't happy with this decision. There are, but at the end of the day we've got to keep making this place better and stronger," Smith said.