Editor,
I was shocked to hear Tuesday about the recreational facility proposed as a supplement to Johnson Center and Johnson Field.
The center has an impressive sales pitch — new fitness center, three-story climbing wall, indoor jogging track, indoor/outdoor leisure pool, and the list goes on and on, including retail space!
Apparently, we are at least getting to vote on this. But I don’t know if this vote has bearing on whether this will be done because it says that this will be brought up as a bond issue. The preliminary projected budget for this facility is $48 million. I have been around long enough to know that the end cost will be a lot more.
I want more information. Who is behind this initiative? Why are we just finding out about this now, right before we are asked to vote on the matter? Why, when our academic departments are being forced to slash budgets, are we thinking about building a sports mall? And what is wrong with Johnson Gym?
Everyone loves that place!
I understand we all want the best of everything, and we all want it now. We are not a society that embraces delayed gratification. We must understand a few things before agreeing to this project.
First, it won’t happen tomorrow, so everyone presently attending UNM will likely have graduated by the time this is built.
I am a nontraditional student with a family, so maybe my 13-year-old daughter will use this state-of-the-art facility.
I can picture her, working out, getting a smoothie, flirting with the boys, having a great time … going to a club meeting.
The thing is I can also see myself writing her tuition check and paying for the projected fee of $107.50 per semester.
I know that there are students who will love this plan, but I am not among them.
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I would much rather see a fee increase now to pay for our academic departments so that they are not cutting class offerings, so that they are not struggling to offer classes that we need to graduate, and so we are getting the best education our money can buy.
We are not spending our money in the right way when our departments are shutting off phones and cancelling convocations, our professors and TAs aren’t earning a competitive wage, and our students are forced to consider changing majors in order to graduate.
I think most students would agree to a tuition increase or fee increase if they knew that, in the end, their degree would earn them a better-paying job, or help them gain access to a prestigious post-graduate program. Or if it would simply better prepare them for life.
I want UNM to stand for the University of New Mexico, not the University of New Mall.
Cara Valente-Compton
UNM student
