Volume9
March vote puts fee increase in hands of Auraria students
©
Pressopolltan
Pebruary27, 1987
Dick Feuerborn, campus rec director, says "no room at the . gym. "
Gym expansion debate heats up ;
by Bob Haas In two weeks students will decide whether to increase the cost of their· education by spending an extra $20 per year in student fees. The money would be used to expand the physical education/recreation building into a physical education, recreation and events center. The $3. l million expansion will depend on the outcome of a campuswide referendum in which students will vote on a mandatory fee increase of $9.99 per semester. AHEC, all three institutions at Auraria and their respective governing bodies have all pledged to support the increase on the ._ condition of student approval. · The new facility would be managed directly by AHEC, in conjunction with a new student/faculty advisory council. The council would consist of a student and faculty or staff from each of the three institutions, and a physical education faculty member. The council would assist the yet to be named director in scheduling and events coordinating decisions. The present facility was built in
1976, and was designed as a space for instruc tional and academic use, according to Jim Schoemer, deputy executive director for AHEC. But demands for the facility from recreation programs and intercollegiate athletics, as well as physical education classes have created an overcrowded situation, Schoemer said. "Students are not paying for any instructional space - students are building their own space. The state will retain and continue to pay for its instructional space," he said. Prsesently, because the facility is designated as instructional , or academic space, the state pays all operational and maintenance costs, and campus rec schedules its programs around physical e ducation requirements. "We've b een getting it free for ten years," said Dick Feuerborn, director of campus rec. "When the pool needs cleaning, we don't pay a dime. When the courts needed resurfacing, the state paid for it." 20 percent of the upkeep and maintenance would b e paid by the new fee revenue, and the state would fund the rest.
Additionally, the money raised by the extra fee will go toward more handball/raquetball courts , extra locker rooms, an expanded lobby, an expanded weightroom with more space and updated equipment, and an expanded gymnasium, which could be used as an Events Center, housing commencement ceremonies, concerts and guest speakers.The gymnasium would also be leased for about $40,000 a year to Metro State's department of intercollegiate athletics. The expansion is not a "posturing " toward intercollegiate ath le tics, Feuerborn said. "It angers me that people believe I'm being used b y the ath letics department. "The entire campus will be funding this facility," h e said . "It's no t appropriate that MSC Athletics gets a full run (of the facility). They are the only on-campus group who will have to lease the facility." Feuerborn estimates that time and space use by athletics is now aboout 10 percent, academic use is about 32 percen t and r ecrea tion c urr e ntly utilizes 53 percent of the facility. The remaining 4-5 percent is unscheduled. ii
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I Anne McKelvey, associate campus rec director, demonstrates the claustrophobic aspects of the gym.