Lauren Colburn said she hardly ever uses the Marino Center, has only been to two sporting events in her three years at Northeastern and is angry she will soon have to pay a fee from which she will not see the benefits.
“It’s not fair. If I had the choice I would waive it again,” the middler nursing major said.
Beginning in the fall, members of the student body will have to pay a mandatory fee of $45 per academic semester. The fee, called the Campus Recreation Fee, replaces the sports pass, but comes with more benefits for students, said Student Government Association (SGA) President Andres Vargas.
In addition to allowing students into every Northeastern athletic event, like the sports pass allowed, the money from the fee will also go towards keeping the Marino Center open later, possibly 24 hours. Also, the Curry Student Center will be open later and there will be more funding for additional club sports, Vargas said.
The biggest beneficiary from the fee will be the multi-purpose athletic stadium on campus. Over the next five to 10 years, when Vargas said he expects work to begin on the stadium, the fee will have raised about $10 million.
Some students who did not waive the sports pass said the change in the fee was no big deal to them.
“It’s really no big deal. I get the sports pass anyways even though I only use it a couple of times a year,” said junior computer science major Brian O’Connor.
Although the cost to students is less than before, the fee is an increase to the 12 to 15 percent of students who in the past had chosen to waive the fee.
Students, like middler nursing major Kristen Pelletier, said they feel they should have been notified or had a say in whether or not they would be able to waive the fee.
“I had no clue. I was on co-op when they voted on it. [SGA] absolutely should have contacted students,” Pelletier said.
In April, SGA voted to get rid of the sports pass and enact the new Campus Recreation Fee with a vote of 52 in favor, three against and zero abstentions.
A student-wide vote was called for during the 2002-03 school year when SGA proposed to raise the Student Activity Fee (SAF) to $100 which received just enough votes to pass. Vargas said that issue required a student-wide vote because the question of raising the SAF had not been asked before. This time there was no student vote because of all the research the SGA members had completed before voting on the new fee, Vargas said.
Citing surveys conducted over the past three years and as recently as one conducted during their “campus invasion day” last spring, Vargas said the SGA had received overwhelming support. Members of the organization asked students if they would incur a cost for a new stadium to be built.
“I know there are times in a month when paying $45 a year can make or break me, but we had too much outweighing evidence to act on the time sensitive issue. No matter what decision we make, we can never get 100 percent student satisfaction. I wish I could please everyone, but I can’t,” Vargas said.
Although the fee cannot please the entire student body, the new fee does please Athletics Director Dave O’Brien.
“[The fee] is a tremendous sign of support from the students. It’s just wonderful,” O’Brien said.
University officials are still attempting to raise the $20 million that will not come from the new fee. Officials are talking with alumni and corporate donors who could potentially donate money for the stadium, O’Brien said.
While O’Brien and university officials are trying to raise money for the stadium, and the new fee will benefit the Marino Center and club sports, SGA Vice President for Academic Affairs William Durkin said he would like to see more academic venues on campus stay open later to help improve student life.
“I would like to see the library open later and I am going to look into how much money it would cost to just keep it open later maybe on school nights because the computer lab and the cyber cafe just doesn’t suffice,” Durkin said.
Because the stadium will not be started for years to come, Vargas said SGA will have Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Larry Mucciolo present the senate with a signed guarantee, once all of the specific numbers are worked out, which will state the money raised from the fee will only be used for the purposes which SGA said it would be used for. SGA will also be presented with annual reports on how the money was spent and dispersed throughout the year to make sure it was not misused, Vargas said.
“We can only do what is in the best interest of the majority of the students. Most of the important things from the fee the students will not see … but most students will understand what the stadium can bring to campus,” Vargas said.
