The UW Recreational Sports Program proposed adding nearly $20 to each student's segregated fees at the Student Services Finance Committee meeting Monday.
SSFC heard the budget proposal for the UW Recreational Sports Program for the 2002-03 school year, which would affect plans to add on to the Southeast Recreational Facility.
Terry Virlee presented the budget, asking for segregated fees in the amount of $1,435,000, which will come to approximately $19.45 per student per semester. This amount is intended to cover a portion of the upkeep for the recreational sports program and to help pay for additions to the Southeast Recreational Facility over the next few years.
The SERF is planning an addition of three levels, or approximately 33,000 square feet, to the existing facility. The construction plans outline an addition of four new gyms, an upper level with an aerobics room and a new exercise room twice the size of the existing room, with over twice as many machines.
“Currently, we have about 2500 square feet for the equipment room at the mezzanine level,” Virlee said. “We have roughly 38 pieces of equipment, and we want to go to 66 pieces.”
Included in the budget was an amount of $90,000, which the program intends to use to purchase approximately 25 new pieces of equipment.
Virlee was uncertain as to what new machines would be purchased.
“All I know for sure is that we’re going to buy about six new treadmills,” Virlee told SSFC, “There’s quite a wait list for the treadmills right now.”
Virlee said the other pieces of equipment would be chosen on basis of popularity, exercise modalities, length of wait lists for machines currently in use and recommendations and suggestions from students.
The plans also call for the wall between the weight room and the circuit training room to be taken down and the weight room expanded. The circuit training room will then be moved into what is currently the room housing the exercise machines. Once the weight room is enlarged, weights that are currently being stored will be made available to students.
Virlee said the construction should begin soon.
“The governor signed the contracts Friday,” he said. “We hope to break ground sometime in early March. Construction should take between 13 and 15 months. I’d hope by the end of spring semester next year we should be just about done, and a year from this fall we should be using the new addition.”
Virlee also said building hours for both the SERF and the Natatorium should remain the same, admitting that while there seemed to be an interest in keeping the facilities open later at night, it was difficult to find staff available to work those hours.
The total projected cost of the addition is $6,569,770.
In other business, Adam Goldstein requested an appeal of the budget granted to Student Judiciary, asking SSFC that the stipends allotted for associate justices be granted in the amount of $1500, as originally requested.
“$750 per year is just not enough,” Goldstein said. “Our request was extremely reasonable.”
SSFC members had originally cut the stipends to demonstrate their displeasure with the inefficiency and slowness of Student Judiciary.
