HSU Asks University Center For $1.3 Million To Expand Student Recreation Center
Flash forward to fall 2012. You walk into the bottom floor of the Forbes Complex across from the Kinesiology building. A receptionist greets you as you head to an afternoon yoga class. On your way you spot a friend taking part in a cooking and nutrition class. You both agree to meet up in the drop-in lounge down the hall later to play Wii. After shooting virtual hoops with your friend on the Wii, you decide you want to play basketball for real. At the reception counter you register for an intramural league, but not before making an appointment with an on-staff masseuse for later in the week.
Humboldt State University administrators want to expand the Student Recreation Center into the Forbes Complex, creating an integrated health, wellness and fitness center that looks a lot like the scene above. They are looking to the University Center — a non-profit auxiliary that operates off your student fees — to pay for it.
On Thursday, the University Center Board of Directors will vote on whether to approve a request for $1.3 million to expand the Student Recreation Center into the bottom floors of the Forbes Complex, the building that now sits vacant across from the current Student Recreation Center. Both advisory boards to the UC Board of Directors — the Programs and Facilities Board of Directors and the Board of Directors Finance Committee — approved the request in concept earlier in the week.
“What we are asking is that the UC let us move down the path toward construction of this center,” said Traci Ferdolage, director of HSU Facilities, Planning and Design. who Ferdolage will present the proposed expansion to the UC Board of Directors at 5 p.m. Thursday.
“It will be like a community center for students,” she said.
Ferdolage said the expansion of the Student Recreation Center will provide a central location for services like intramurals, recreational sport clubs, health education programming and center activities that are currently spread across the campus. The Forbes Complex is a perfect place to house these services because it has been vacant since the Kinesiology building opened next door in 2008, she said.
“Right now [the Forbes Complex] is sitting empty,” Ferdolage said. “When you look at this, it’s a no-brainer. Based on the location of the facilities around it, the question becomes, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’”
That answer is simple for Associated Students President Bryan Kelly, who sits on the Programs and Facilities board of directors.
“My issue is, ‘Where the money is coming from?’” said Kelly, who voted against the request Friday in a 2-2 vote. “Student fee money is going to pay for the West Gym, a state-funded building. This feels rushed. Students should have more input and feedback in the process. This isn’t something that has to be approved right now.”
During Friday’s meeting, Kelly said he was not prepared to approve such a large request without first consulting students.
“I learned about the full cost of this project less than a day ago,” Kelly said during Friday’s meeting. “I can’t represent students in less than a day.”
Peg Blake, HSU Student Affairs vice president and member of the Programs and Facilities board of directors, agreed it was unfortunate the tight timeline left out student opinion.
“In an ideal world, we would have started with student discussion,” said Blake, who has been involved with the design of student recreation centers at two big universities. “Typically, these have been student-driven projects that the students had to decide through a campus-wide vote.”
Blake said that despite the lack of communication, she is in favor of the expansion.
“This is not ideal in terms of student’s leading the go-forward, and us not asking to make sure students are really comfortable that this meets their needs. However, I am very excited about the project otherwise,” Blake said. “I have seen SRCs transform student life and retention rates.”
Macy Stewart, an anthropology major and chair of the Programs and Facilities board of directors, broke Friday’s tie by voting in favor of the proposal. Acknowledging Kelly and Blake’s concerns, Stewart said, “Right now we are just recommending the concept to the UC Board of Directors. We can get into the nitty gritty details at that meeting.”
An affirmative vote by the UC board of directors Thursday would not be without precedent. Last spring, the board approved $150,000 to pay for HSU Facilities Planning and Development’s renovation of Room 201 in the West Gym of the Forbes Complex. The room, now rknown as the Student Recreation Center West, will open spring 2012 and come complete with a bouldering wall, cardio facility and weight-lifting facility. (See Susan Aksu’s “Rec Center Gets Beefed Up” online at www.thelumberjack.org.)
Dave Nakamura, the UC executive director, explained that the results of a student survey conducted by Student Affairs last spring contributed to the decision to fund the renovations of Room 201 in the Forbes Complex. The survey also sparked the beginnings of the discussion about turning the entire Forbes Complex into an integrated health, wellness and fitness center.
“What we found in that survey was that the current student recreation center is impacted and not meeting the needs of students,” Nakamura said.
According to the results of the survey, which was emailed to students and had more than 1,000 respondents, a significant percentage of students experienced problems in the weight room, stretching area and cardio areas because of overcrowding.
“When the Kinesiology building was opened in 2008, it left the Forbes Complex empty,” Nakamura said. “After I knew that no other entity was interested in moving into that area — that’s when I and other administration officials started considering it as a possible location for this expanded student health and wellness center.”
Nakamura said the UC can afford the $1.3 million for the renovation.
“The UC has various reserve funds that have been growing over the years,” Nakamura said. “The reason we have these reserve funds, and the reason we have been putting money aside, is for projects like this.”
When Follett took over operation of the bookstore over the summer, the UC recieved $800,000 from the sale of inventory like textbooks and sweatshirts.
“That [money] certainly won’t hurt our ability to move forward with that request,” Nakamura said.
While Bryan Kelly said he understands the UC may have the ability to pay for the expansion, he does not think that means they automatically should. However, that is not because he does not like the idea of an integrated health, wellness and fitness center.
“I support the potential of the project,” Kelly said. “But at other schools they hold referendums. They ask students for their opinion. The point of these boards is to be a representative democracy. That’s not what this is.”
Humboldt State University administrators want to expand the Student Recreation Center into the Forbes Complex, creating an integrated health, wellness and fitness center that looks a lot like the scene above. They are looking to the University Center — a non-profit auxiliary that operates off your student fees — to pay for it.
On Thursday, the University Center Board of Directors will vote on whether to approve a request for $1.3 million to expand the Student Recreation Center into the bottom floors of the Forbes Complex, the building that now sits vacant across from the current Student Recreation Center. Both advisory boards to the UC Board of Directors — the Programs and Facilities Board of Directors and the Board of Directors Finance Committee — approved the request in concept earlier in the week.
“What we are asking is that the UC let us move down the path toward construction of this center,” said Traci Ferdolage, director of HSU Facilities, Planning and Design. who Ferdolage will present the proposed expansion to the UC Board of Directors at 5 p.m. Thursday.
“It will be like a community center for students,” she said.
Ferdolage said the expansion of the Student Recreation Center will provide a central location for services like intramurals, recreational sport clubs, health education programming and center activities that are currently spread across the campus. The Forbes Complex is a perfect place to house these services because it has been vacant since the Kinesiology building opened next door in 2008, she said.
“Right now [the Forbes Complex] is sitting empty,” Ferdolage said. “When you look at this, it’s a no-brainer. Based on the location of the facilities around it, the question becomes, ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’”
That answer is simple for Associated Students President Bryan Kelly, who sits on the Programs and Facilities board of directors.
“My issue is, ‘Where the money is coming from?’” said Kelly, who voted against the request Friday in a 2-2 vote. “Student fee money is going to pay for the West Gym, a state-funded building. This feels rushed. Students should have more input and feedback in the process. This isn’t something that has to be approved right now.”
During Friday’s meeting, Kelly said he was not prepared to approve such a large request without first consulting students.
“I learned about the full cost of this project less than a day ago,” Kelly said during Friday’s meeting. “I can’t represent students in less than a day.”
Peg Blake, HSU Student Affairs vice president and member of the Programs and Facilities board of directors, agreed it was unfortunate the tight timeline left out student opinion.
“In an ideal world, we would have started with student discussion,” said Blake, who has been involved with the design of student recreation centers at two big universities. “Typically, these have been student-driven projects that the students had to decide through a campus-wide vote.”
Blake said that despite the lack of communication, she is in favor of the expansion.
“This is not ideal in terms of student’s leading the go-forward, and us not asking to make sure students are really comfortable that this meets their needs. However, I am very excited about the project otherwise,” Blake said. “I have seen SRCs transform student life and retention rates.”
Macy Stewart, an anthropology major and chair of the Programs and Facilities board of directors, broke Friday’s tie by voting in favor of the proposal. Acknowledging Kelly and Blake’s concerns, Stewart said, “Right now we are just recommending the concept to the UC Board of Directors. We can get into the nitty gritty details at that meeting.”
An affirmative vote by the UC board of directors Thursday would not be without precedent. Last spring, the board approved $150,000 to pay for HSU Facilities Planning and Development’s renovation of Room 201 in the West Gym of the Forbes Complex. The room, now rknown as the Student Recreation Center West, will open spring 2012 and come complete with a bouldering wall, cardio facility and weight-lifting facility. (See Susan Aksu’s “Rec Center Gets Beefed Up” online at www.thelumberjack.org.)
Dave Nakamura, the UC executive director, explained that the results of a student survey conducted by Student Affairs last spring contributed to the decision to fund the renovations of Room 201 in the Forbes Complex. The survey also sparked the beginnings of the discussion about turning the entire Forbes Complex into an integrated health, wellness and fitness center.
“What we found in that survey was that the current student recreation center is impacted and not meeting the needs of students,” Nakamura said.
According to the results of the survey, which was emailed to students and had more than 1,000 respondents, a significant percentage of students experienced problems in the weight room, stretching area and cardio areas because of overcrowding.
“When the Kinesiology building was opened in 2008, it left the Forbes Complex empty,” Nakamura said. “After I knew that no other entity was interested in moving into that area — that’s when I and other administration officials started considering it as a possible location for this expanded student health and wellness center.”
Nakamura said the UC can afford the $1.3 million for the renovation.
“The UC has various reserve funds that have been growing over the years,” Nakamura said. “The reason we have these reserve funds, and the reason we have been putting money aside, is for projects like this.”
When Follett took over operation of the bookstore over the summer, the UC recieved $800,000 from the sale of inventory like textbooks and sweatshirts.
“That [money] certainly won’t hurt our ability to move forward with that request,” Nakamura said.
While Bryan Kelly said he understands the UC may have the ability to pay for the expansion, he does not think that means they automatically should. However, that is not because he does not like the idea of an integrated health, wellness and fitness center.
“I support the potential of the project,” Kelly said. “But at other schools they hold referendums. They ask students for their opinion. The point of these boards is to be a representative democracy. That’s not what this is.”
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Issue Date:
Wed, 2011-12-07 
