By Dinah Alobeid
Last summer the once-waivable recreation fee was increased and made mandatory for all students by the Student Government Association (SGA) in order to fund new programs, increase the number of on-campus club sports and help fund a new athletic field.
A year later, Athletics Director Dave O’Brien said the Campus Recreation Fee has pushed Northeastern further toward its monetary goal to build the all-purpose stadium.
The recreation fee will go towards the $10 million dollars the university is trying to raise through the fee, but that leaves $20 million unaccounted for. O’Brien said athletics is working with administration and alumni relations to raise money through corporate sponsorships and alumni donations.
“We are out there consistently talking to sponsors and alums and I am generally pleased with the response,” O’Brien said. “Everyone we have talked to has agreed to contribute in some way, mostly through monetary donations.”
Administration has agreed to pay $10 million of the $30 million estimated cost but until “all the dollars are accounted for,” plans for the groundbreaking and production cannot begin. However, O’Brien said he thinks the goal of $20 million through students in the form of the required fee and donations will be achieved sooner rather than later.
“I think we are very close to raising the money we need,” O’Brien said.
Meanwhile, while the wait continues to raise enough money to begin plans for the actual building of the stadium, a portion of the recreation fee has gone to benefit club sports and intramurals.
“Right now we have 32 active club sports up from about 19 or 20 before the fee was put into place,” O’Brien said. Five more active club sports are to be added, bringing the number up to 37 by this fall.
“The ultimate goal is to have 40 active club sports by the end of the recreation fee’s two years, doubling the original number by the end of spring 2006,” O’Brien said.
According to Jerry Foster, who oversees club sports, the sports that will be added this coming fall are baseball, softball and field hockey, and in 2006 women’s squash and ice hockey will join the club sport ranks.
Ed Klotzbier, vice president for student affairs, said the university is working toward benefiting current students through use of the recreation fee.
“We want to put students’ money to use while they are still here so that they can benefit. Most of the current students won’t be around to see a stadium,” Klotzbier said.
Cooking classes, yoga classes and a wide range of activities are being looked into as part of the activities that the recreation fee will go toward, Klotzbier said. This is to make sure to cover as many students as possible, even if their interests lie outside of club or intramural sports.
Klotzbier also said the fee will go toward programs with Husky Health to promote spirituality, health (both physical and mental) as well as healthy eating.
Some students, including Matt Dickman, said he could see the benefit of the recreation fee.
“I don’t mind paying [the recreation fee] and the extended hours at Marino this past year were a huge plus,” said Dickman, a middler electrical engineering major.
For the fall 2004 semester, the Marino Center was open 24 hours a day as a “test run” to see if these extended hours truly benefited Northeastern students. “We made the agreement to extend the hours on a ‘see-how-it-goes’ basis,” Klotzbier said. He said data was collected revealing that between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. virtually nobody used the center.
Because of this information, the university decided to scale back those hours for staffing reasons because it is difficult to find people to work in the early hours of the morning. Public safety was also a concern because people not associated with the university could enter the building.
Students who do not use the Marino Center and who do not participate in club sports said they think differently about the mandatory cost.
“It’s sort of a waste. If you join a club sport or do intramurals [it’s worth it], but if you don’t, you get nothing from it,” said Dianna Lui, a middler medical laboratory science major.
