Voting on the Student Recreation and Wellness Center may be a new concept for Cal State Long Beach students, but students at Cal State Fullerton have been there and done that as they await a $41 million rec center coming to their campus next year.
The CSF Student Recreation Center, which is planned to open in January 2008, will feature state-of-the-art fitness equipment, an indoor track, rock climbing wall, outdoor swimming pool, multipurpose activity spaces, sports courts and a multi-media room.
In comparison, CSULB’s proposed $66 million Student Recreation & Wellness Center will have a recreation pool, rock climbing, volleyball and basketball courts, indoor jogging track, weight machines, cardiovascular fitness machines and free weights.
CSF Associated Students Executive Vice President Javier Gamboa said that many students at Fullerton are pleased that the campus will have a recreational facility.
“I honestly can’t wait for it,” Gamboa said. “People here like to work out and have been welcoming the rec center.”
Senior CSF communications major Justin Stannard said he would probably use the rec center in-between classes.
“I spend a lot of time on campus, so I may use it to pass some time,” Stannard said.
When the rec center at CSF was proposed a few years ago, the students seemed to share the opinions as the CSULB about the possible rec center.
In 1998, CSF students were set to vote on a proposed rec center. But students began to voice their support and opposition to the center in similar fashions as statements made by some CSULB students.
In a March 20, 1998, opinion article in CSF’s student newspaper, the Daily Titan, titled “Cal State Fullerton students owe it to future Titans to build a fitness center,” author Heath Rothman wrote: “Students will have top priority because students will berunning the facility and it will provide hundreds of jobs for students.” Such benefits were also voiced for the rec center at CSULB.
In the same issue, CSF student Nathan Orme wrote an opposing article: “Make students pay $50 per semester and a membership to use the gym. Don’t make the computer nerds, whose pasty white skin never sees the light of day, pay $150 for the athletic types to stay in shape.” This, too, reflects some of the same sentiments as CSULB students opposing the proposed rec center.
However, the CSF student body voted the center down in spring 1998. But the rec center was proposed again, and in spring 2002, Gamboa said students voted on the center again, with 69 percent in favor of it.
In the fall of 2001, the CSF rec center fee for students was $20 per semester. When the rec center is completed in early 2008, the rec center fee will be $50 per semester – a $30 increase – to cover operational costs, Gamboa said.
CSF business marketing major Esther Kwon said having a rec center on campus may be good for those who stay on campus for long periods of time. But for her, however, it is a different story.
“I’m excited about it, but I don’t even have time to use the center,” Kwon said. “It’s beneficial to those who have a lot of time on campus.”
However, Ashley Ellis, a sophomore English major, said that even though she was not able to vote on the center, she was excited about it coming to CSF. Ellis said the current fitness facilities and weight rooms are inadequate and crowded, as several rooms in the kinesiology building were used for workout areas.
Overall, as some CSF students said they are for or against the center and awaits its opening in 2008, CSULB will find out this week if the students support or oppose the possible Student Recreation and Wellness Center.