Today, the Student Senate will discuss changing the way the Student Recreation Center is funded.
Senate Bill 28, which was sent to the Senate rules committee last week, requests that operational funding of the rec center be transferred to the administration. “I just want to remind the body that we need to solve the rec center situation,” Sen. Athan Papailiou said during a discussion at last Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting. “The incidental fee cannot handle the amount of growth it needs and it’s starting to hurt the programs that need the growth the most.” Students currently pay for the rec center in two ways: a $15.25 per student, per term fee that goes toward paying off the bond debt for construction of the building, and the operating costs that come out of the incidental fee, which changes every year.
If Senate Bill 28 were to take effect, students would pay a fee for operating the building in addition to the $15.25 bond fee, but it would be separate from the incidental fee, Sen. Jacob Daniels said at last Wednesday’s meeting.
Transfer of the rec center budget to the administration would take the burden of the complicated budget off the Programs Finance Committee, freeing up more of the incidental fee budget for allocation to student programs.
Papailiou said there would be some sort of student oversight of the new fee through the Student Recreation Center Advisory Board, which has nine student members, six of whom are elected.
“The sponsors of this bill feel that if we transfer it to the administration, change needs to happen within the advisory board,” he said.
The PFC allocated a total budget of $1,080,243 for the rec center for the 2007-08 year.
– Jobetta Hedelman