Rec Center student fee postponed
Published March 30, 2004
The Missouri Students Association Student Fee Review Committee over postponed a construction cost for students.
The $75 student activity fee increase to help pay for the Student Recreation Center's renovations will not go into effect until Winter Semester 2005.
The increase was scheduled to go into effect this summer, but the committee realized the increase was going into effect earlier than what a 2001 student referendum allowed. Students voted for the fee increase to start when the Recreation Center project was completed.
"The referendum said the project was scheduled to be completed for fall 2004," SFRC chairman Matthew Sokoloff said. "Now the project completion is scheduled for 2005, so we thought the referendum should be upheld."
Sokoloff said he met with administrators to discuss a compromise.
"It was not our goal to put the Rec Center in any sort of financial danger," he said. "We understand that Student Affairs has to begin to pay back loans."
Sokoloff said administrators told him adjusting the increase schedule would not harm the Recreation Center.
"Administrators had a meeting and decided they still would be able to run fiscally sound if they waited until winter to increase the fee," he said.
Rich Anderson, fiscal officer for Student Affairs, said he thinks postponing the fee increase is appropriate for students.
"The increase will be postponed until next winter semester because not as much of the facility will be available due to complications with the project," he said. "This is more than fair for students."
According to the construction schedule, renovations will be completed by the end of December, and the pools should open in May 2005, said Diane Dahlmann, director of Recreation Services and Facilities.
"Originally the architects felt they could get all the renovations done by Fall '04," Dahlmann said. "Then the project went out for bid, and the contractors indicated concern about the schedule and being able to meet it. We thought we would be open sooner, but when bids came back and we got feedback, we realized we needed to amend the schedule so it was more realistic."
Increasing the fee before the completion of the Recreation Center project was not an attempt to slight students, Sokoloff said.
"I know that this was not a matter of any administrator trying to break the agreement made with students, but rather an oversight that is now fixed," he said. "The project was scheduled for completion in fall of 2004, so that is when they set the fee to take effect. When the project completion date was adjusted, the fee schedule was not."