The UNCG Rec Center: Dispelling the Myths According to the Brailsford and Dunlavy Campus Recreation Needs Assessment (the report cited as proof of the need for new rec facilities): (anything in quotes is a direct quote from the document) • 54% of on campus student respondents indicated that they use the current rec center • Only 30% of students felt that the spaces for “particular activities” were overcrowded “during peak periods.” • “Most survey respondents felt that the SRC was able to meet their needs during all hours of the day.” • Over 50% of respondents indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the rec center in terms of o a. ability to find your way, o b. condition and appearance of building, o c. quality of services, o d. convenience of hours, o e. variety of services, o f. availability of services, o g. faculty and staff instructors, and o h. convenience of location The $435 increase in student fees is to repay the $91 million price tag for the new rec center. (common knowledge) An additional $167 will be added to students’ bills when the center opens to pay for maintenance and programming. (UNCG Myth Dispelling fact sheet) UNCG is #1 in student fees in the UNC state system. (12:00 forum SGA presentation) The housing in Spartan Village will see an increase in cost above the already high prices. (Tim Johnson, 12:00 forum) Only students who can afford that will live in that housing that is now served very conveniently by the new rec center. The lower cost student housing will no longer be near the recreational facilities. 90% of students support enhanced access to healthy lifestyle and exercise opportunities. This is the same percentage that also supports affordable tuition and fees. (Brailsford & Dunlavy, p7) The administration appears to be unable to define the term gentrification. (12:00 forum) The administration admitted that they did not consider ecological impacts when determining the need for and location of a new recreation center. (Jorge Campos at 12:00 forum) Chancellor Brady assures UNCG that her vision for the university includes limiting enrollment to 18,000 and so we will not outgrow the new facilities during her tenure as Chancellor. (her words at 12:00 forum) She also states that a master plan for a campus “may span years and even decades…students (and even chancellors) may come and go” (emphasis mine). It is certainly possible then that before this master plan is even complete, here tenure will be over and therefore her promise for a cap on growth is meaningless. It very well may be that UNCG outgrows this new rec center before it is even paid off (much as we theoretically have with this rec center). (Brady Letter to Campus 11/13/13) If 12,000 students were enrolled at UNCG when the current rec center was built and that required 80,000 square feet, why does an enrollment of 18,000 students necessitate a center that is more than 3 times that size? An increase of 33% in student population has been answered by an increase of 300% in space. The natatorium, including a wave pool, will be available 24 hours a day (12:00 forum). Meanwhile, there are students who do not have enough money to buy books, pay rent, and in some cases, are even going hungry. Despite the oft-cited research supposedly demonstrating that on campus housing and engagement results in higher retention, there has been no investigation into the nature of that relationship. It is possible that students who live on campus represent a population that is more likely to remain (ie traditional students, those who can afford to pay the housing fees, those who aren’t saving by living at home, etc.) Much more investigation into the reasons why on campus students have a higher rate of retention needs to be conducted before assigning a $91 million dollar solution. While campus police have not been housed in a building that was created specifically to house them, neither have many of the departments on campus. Everything on campus is hard to access during peak hours. That’s what makes them peak hours. The Chancellor makes $324,000 a year, (News and Record and Charlotte Observer’s Faculty Salary Databases, information provided by NC State Government) it is quite possible that she does not understand the difference that $435 a year can make to someone who earns minimum wage. That $435 a year equals approximately an extra 50 hours of work for a student population that indicated in the Brailsford and Dunlavey report that work and class schedules were the most important factors in determining their participation in exercise. The tunnel that is supposed to connect the existing campus with the new housing and facilities ends on the opposite side of Lee Street. It will carry students under the railroad tracks and then ask them to cross a busy multi-lane street without improvements to pedestrian crossing. The typically lower income residents of Glenwood will be able to purchase gym memberships for the same price as faculty and staff (12:00 forum) ($229 per year at the current facilities) (UNCG Rec Center website). In order to be fair to businesses, UNCG has guaranteed that it will keep its prices raised above what might cause other gyms to lose members (12:00 forum in reference to non-compete agreement). In other words, it will be pricier than other gym memberships. The land for the residence halls and the new rec center was not purchased by UNCG but instead by a Limited Liability Corporation (many of the members of which are top administrators at UNCG) who will then lease back the land to UNCG. It is this ownership that has also allowed for the Spartan Village residence halls to be built using wood frame construction, rather than the standard steel construction that would have been required for life safety code in a state building (public record). Chancellor Brady could not address all of the misinformation surrounding the new student rec center in the message she sent out today because, a) she doesn’t want to, b) doesn’t seem to be aware of how much of it there really is, c) is producing a fair amount herself, and d) doesn’t trust the students and faculty of UNCG to be involved in a clear and transparent process.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 16:28:08 +0000
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