A proposed recreation center could increase student fees, but while ASUNM mulls over the idea, they’ve committed to cutting costs elsewhere.
Johnson Gym is not accessible enough for students, said Vice President for Student Affairs Cheo Torres at ASUNM’s Wednesday meeting.
“We teach courses there during the day, and in the evenings we run out of space,” Torres said.
Funds for this planned center would likely come from student fees, said Tim Gutierrez, associate vice-president of Student Affairs, and would require about $117 student fees increase per semester.
“It’s a lot cheaper than joining the fitness center,” Torres said.
ASUNM President Lazaro Cardenas said the recreation center should not be funded through student fees.
”Students don’t have that much money,” Cardenas said. “I don’t want that to be a barrier to them obtaining some type of education. It’s tough to even think, in my mind, of raising student fees. I don’t support a rec center at the current time.”
Sen. Terence Brown supported the center.
“It’s important for us to be competitive with other schools,” he said. “It’s only $100 … This is important in propelling us to the next level.”
Sen. Kelly Williamson introduced a resolution, which passed, that encourages sending out digital meeting agenda packets and also projecting them during meetings. Williamson said about 500 sheets of paper are used each meeting, costing between 10-40 cents per page.
“They are all very important documents, but in this day in age, I think we can easily move on to an electronic version,” Williamson said. “Everyone should do their part.”
Senators would still be able to print out their own copies of agendas, or bring laptops, something Sen. Daniel Parker said he has reservations about.
“I don’t want to see a row of laptops during meetings,” he said. “I don’t want to see people messing around with their laptops.”
Williamson said senators would have to stay focused during meetings.
“It just goes back to your personal code of ethics,” Williamson said. “People will see if you’re on Facebook during a meeting, and I think you would be reprimanded for that.”
Sen. Melissa Trent said the resolution shows that ASUNM cares about sustainability.
“This is a really good way to walk the walk and save money,” Trent said. “It’s taking steps like this to really revolutionize the way we do business.”
Two bills passed in Wednesday’s meeting focused on raising standards for student government.
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One bill would change the senators’ minimum GPA from 2.0 to 2.5, and the second would require the president and vice-president to hold at least a 3.0 GPA.
Sen. Greg Golden said the constitution changes would assure ASUNM members are model students.
“I think the core reason we would pass something like this … is that we’re trying to raise that standard,” he said.
These amendments will be voted on in a coming election.
