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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Rec Center seeks support for new fee

The Associated Students of the University of Arizona passed the resolution opposing teachers with concealed weapons permits to bring their guns to campus.

Several of the senators said they were compelled to pass the resolution because they are afraid that if professors are allowed to carry firearms, it will not take long before students would also be allowed to carry a weapon.

“”It’s is our obligation to respond to the students and what they want,”” Sen. Leo Yamaguchi said at Wednesday’s meeting. “”The forum was very eye-opening.””

Yamaguchi added that he felt compelled to pass the resolution based on responses from professors who said they would not feel comfortable carrying a gun on campus.

Sen. James Brooks responded to some of the professors who spoke at Tuesday’s forum and said he hopes to work on improving the safety options for professors in a way that does not involve firearms.

A representative from the UA Campus Health Service asked ASUA to support a fee increase for health and recreation services.

Campus Health and the Student Recreation Center have partnered up and concluded that they need $306 more from students per year to continue providing the same quality of services, according to Kris Kreutz, director of Administrative Services for Campus Health.

“”We can’t survive and provide the services we currently provide without this fee,”” Kreutz said.

The Rec Center and Campus Health created a survey and distributed it to parents and students. Kreutz provided the results of the survey on Wednesday.

Kreutz said that out of roughly 4,600 e-mailed surveys to parents, 78 percent were either slightly or very supportive of increasing the fee. These results were based on an 11 percent response rate.

Close to 36,000 surveys were e-mailed to students and 64 percent said they were in favor of the fee, based on a 13 percent response rate, Kreutz added. He said 36 percent of those students were supportive of a lesser increase, between $80 and $100.

“”I’m here to let you know that the other schools already have (increased) the fee, parents and students are in support of the fee increase,”” Kreutz said. “”I’m here to ask for you to endorse this fee.””

Kreutz said the fee would be used to hire more counselors and other employees to take pressure off of the current “”overwhelmed staff.”” He also said he hopes the fee will allow him to bolster the nursing staff and hire a nutritionist along with other professionals who are qualified to counsel students with alcohol abuse problems.

While the Arizona Board of Regents will vote to increase the fee in March, Kreutz was hoping ASUA would provide a letter of support to ABOR.

The senators voted not to support the fee increase, however, and asked Kreutz to try and find funding sources outside of the university.

Kreutz said he has yet to find outside funding sources but has started petitioning for donors.

Sen. Eduardo Atjian suggested a phasing in process or developing a self-sufficient method of providing the services and resources.

To this Kreutz said there is no way to get around having to increase the fee since self-sufficient organizations often see their funding fluctuate throughout the year.

“”We would prefer to do it in a self-sufficient manner,”” Kreutz said. “”You have to, in my opinion, have some source of stable funding.””

Atjian, who sits on the Rec Center Advisory Committee, said he will be devoted to helping Kreutz find a way to fund the services without asking students to pay the increasing fee.

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