The UNM Master Plan outlines a plan to build a new recreation center and update Johnson Gym, even though a proposal to fund a new recreation center using student fees was voted down in the ASUNM elections last fall.
“The University and ASUNM ask students for their input on everything and then ignore it, it seems like,” said student James Brown. “Whether it is the presidential search, or new construction or new services, no one seems to pay attention.”
ASUNM President Jaymie Roybal said she believes students want a recreation center, and that the ASUNM measure did not pass because of technical reasons.
“I think (the proposal) was poorly worded and that is why it didn’t pass,” she said. “The way in which it was phrased made no one want to vote for it.”
She said the current plan has no cost estimate, no definite design, and is a placeholder for the future of the University rather than a design for the present.
“Things don’t happen at UNM overnight,” she said. “If they were saying ‘we are going to build a rec center tomorrow using an increase in student fees’ I might be upset, but the Master Plan is a long-term plan for the future, and at some point Johnson needs to be updated. I’m not sure how to fund it, or what it will cost, but that is something they can look at in the future.”
Roybal said UNM is overdue for a new recreation center.
“UNM is far behind its peer institutions, and Johnson is not exactly a state-of-the-art facility,” she said. “I think students do want it, and I think it’s something we need, but part of the reason it didn’t pass is economic times are hard. Some students just can’t afford an increase in student fees right now.”
Mary Kenney, the University planning officer, said her department is listening to students.
“My intent is to suggest that from our interviews, numerous meetings and comments, there is interest in having a free-standing recreation center,” she said. “Student Affairs also supports the notion that this would bring value to our students by enhancing recruitment and retention. UNM is one of the few universities nationally that does not have a free-standing rec center.”
She said the goal of the plan is to save space and have a starting point for construction when the time is right to expand recreation facilities.
“In the future, should the students desire a recreation center, having an area reflected in the Master Plan’s land-use plan ensures that there will be an appropriate location,” she said.
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UNM spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said student opinions have changed since four years ago.
“ASUNM and the students were pushing for a new recreation center,” she said. “When you have been here for so long, you realize there are cycles. Things change and different students and administrations have different goals.”
UNM student Alice Rodney said students are only concerned about themselves and not the future of the University.
“We all need to realize that the things we talk about doing at our University now are not things we will see in the time we spend here,” she said. “It’s about consideration of the present for the needs of the days to come. It’s about caring for the students who will be participants in the future of this University, the future we can build for them by being a little less selfish and realizing what needs to be done and taking it upon ourselves to do it.”
