The Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents on Friday approved a new student fee that would help support renovation and construction of a student center and recreation facilities. Passage of this fee is just one piece of a broader campus development plan.
Under the proposal, students would start paying $150 per semester beginning this summer. EKU officials are preparing to ask the state legislature in 2016 to borrow $60 million to renovate the student center and build a new recreation facility.
University president Michael Benson says students will have a say in the plans. "But now we want students to be involved in the process of programming and design and actual construction," said Benson. "It's terribly exciting to me because I get juiced about stuff like this. We want our students to feel like they're a part of it too and have bought into it."
Benson says the student and recreation buildings are just one part of an overall $250 million construction program which also includes new housing and dining facilities. EKU Student Government President Kyle Nicholas says the student center needs updating. "I relate the middle of Powell, which is kind of that main floor, to the waiting room of a doctor's office," Nicholas said. "I mean you have just a couple of chairs, TV's, but there's no true student engagement. There's nothing that draws you to that facility."
One student appeared before the Board on Friday requesting a vote be delayed so that students could be made more fully aware of the fee and project. Zeynab Day addressed the Board asking that a decision be put off until a later date. "The student center voted on the premise that the overwhelming student body was in support of this fee," said Day. "I don't know that's an accurate representation of the student body and that's what I would like to look into further through the avenue of petitions to see where students fall on that issue."
Day says in a one day petition drive, some 400 students signed the document requesting a 'no' vote on the student fee proposal. ?
