After the Arizona Board of Regents approved a campus-wide $75 per-semester facilities fee on March 11, the undergraduate student governments on each campus are working to assemble a campus facility fee board.
The facilities fees will go toward building and renovating student recreation centers on each campus, and the student representatives will act as a voice for students’ wishes on how to spend the fee money.
Each representative will work with administrators on a University-wide board to design buildings and decide what will go into them. The project is expected to start next fall and to be completed by the 2012 school year.
Students won’t have to pay the fee until 2012, when the facilities are expected to open. The construction will be paid for with loans.
Steven Lester, an air traffic management junior, was selected to be the Polytechnic campus’ facilities fee representative by Associated Students of ASU Polytechnic president Matt McCoy earlier this month.
“I’m very honored that they looked to me first,” he said. “I’ve worked with recreation for three years now and it’s very important to me.”
Polytechnic needs new recreation facilities and an appropriately sized student union to go along with the campus’ new academic buildings, Lester said.
There will be a meeting sometime this month for all the representatives to get together for a general overview on how each recreation center is going to be structured, Lester said.
“Next fall is when we still start to get down to business,” he said.
After working for the recreation center at Polytechnic, Lester said he is excited about the changes to come in the future.
“I’m really glad the students at ASU have put forth the effort to get something like this passed,” he said. “This is something they need and without fees, there’s no way this would get built.”
Brendan O’Kelly, political science junior and president of the Undergraduate Student Government on the Tempe campus, appointed political science junior Chris Fennessey to be Tempe’s representative two weeks ago.
“Speaking for the Tempe campus, the rep will work on the structure and services the facility will provide,” O’Kelly said.
The representative will be working with other campuses to communicate what exactly Tempe wants out of the facilities fee, he said. Fennessey said the fee is only meant for construction purposes.
“The priorities for Tempe are to extend our Student Recreation Complex and health center,” he said.
It’s important for students to have a health center without long wait times, he said, and this will alleviate those issues.
Courtney Dash, a criminal justice student, was selected by Associated Students of ASU West President Andrew Clark to be the campus’ representative.
The representative is there to make sure each campus is getting what it needs, she said.
“It’s not going to look the same at each campus,” she said. “We will go to the students and ask what they need.”
Tania Mendes, journalism sophomore and Associated Students of ASU Downtown president, said the campus hasn’t yet chosen a representative. A Downtown representative should be appointed by May, she said.
Reach the reporter at mmbarke1@asu.edu
