OK. So I’m a little angry right now. See, I pay segregated fees this year, like all of you students out there in campusland. Seg fees, as most of you probably know, fund various student programs around campus. One of the biggest portion of seg fees goes toward the UW Division of Recreational Sports, which runs the Nat, the SERF, intramural sports, and other fitness-related services on campus.

Well, Rec Sports has been funding the NatUp 2010 campaign. You know those folks that have been all over campus wearing red t-shirts, handing you full color fliers and throwing around bright red stickers? That was funded by our seg fees. Meaning, our seg fees are being used in an effort to raise our seg fees. And if NatUp fails, and they put it on the ballot again, our seg fees could be used again to try to raise our seg fees. Can you say absurd?

I filed a request with UW today to find out how much money Rec Sports has been spent on this campaign–I’ve heard numbers around $30,000, but I’d like to see a real breakdown. I also asked for all e-mail communication regarding the NatUp campaign, because I’d like to see how students got involved with this “movement.”

So, I’m interested to see how that turns out.

On another note, I have a question for Rec Sports/NatUp. One of the main criticisms of the NatUp campaign is that it does nothing to address the overcrowding at the SERF. NatUp’s response is that the SERF can’t be done right now because there is no available land around there, meaning that they would have to tear the building down and build a new SERF, which would displace thousands of students for more than a year.

OK, so how about this. You know that huge green space where old Ogg used to be? Well, they’re building the new Gordon Commons there, and after that’s complete, they’re tearing down the old Gordon Commons, with plans to turn that into a green space.

So, if the SERF is the facility used by the majority of students, and it’s in need of work more than the Nat, why can’t we build a new SERF where the CURRENT Gordon Commons is after that building is torn down? It would be on Johnson, across from 333 East Campus Mall, making it a great location. And if we still want a green space in the Southeast area, you can tear down the old SERF and make some nice grass/basketball course areas next to the new Ogg.

If you brought forward this proposal, I would have no choice but to support it, and I think you could easily get the majority of campus to go along with it. To do this successfully would take probably 10 years, and by that point, the campus master plan calls for Witte and Sellery to come down, which would throw that area into a total mess if the SERF and Gordon Commons weren’t totally in place.

Maybe I’m crazy. But you know what’s crazier? Having students spend $110 a year for decades to fund an addition to a building many of them couldn’t even find on a map.