Former ASASUD President Tania Mendes said she and ASASUD President Christian Vasquez collaborated to appoint ASASUD Vice President Jessica Abercrombie as the Downtown campus representative to the ASU facilities fee board created last semester.
“It was both me and Christian,” Mendes said in regards to who was responsible for Abercrombie’s appointment. “I already had an idea of who I thought would be ideal for the board position … I was the one that picked Jessica, and Christian agreed that would also be a good choice.”
The board, created to oversee facilities fee usage across ASU’s four campuses, meets bi-weekly and is comprised of two representatives from each campus as well as the Graduate & Professional Student Association. Each campus and GPSA is allowed one vote on the board. Whether this vote is shared between the two campus representatives or is given to one sole representative varies between campuses.
Mendes is also a downtown campus representative on the board, but said she considers Abercrombie the sole voting member.
“I’m pretty much just a point of reference, a resource, to Jessica,” Mendes said. “Yes, you could say I’m a representative for the campus, but as far as meetings go and dividing up the money, Jessica is present at all of those meetings.”
Mendes said she was involved in meetings with the Lincoln Family YMCA and University officials regarding the facilities fee during her tenure as ASASUD president but was not in the state during the summer to attend meetings with the facilities fee board.
Abercrombie assumed the role of facilities fee representative for the Downtown campus per her affiliation with Downtown Campus Recreation as intramural specialist and director, not as a representative of ASASUD. Nearly all of the students on the facilities fee board work or are affiliated with campus recreation, she said.
“I came to (Mendes) and requested to fill that position,” Abercrombie said. “She’s sort of an adviser for me, someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s been really nice to go back to her.”
Abercrombie is not the only student government representative on the facilities fee board.
Kelley Stewart, GPSA President, chose to accept a position on the board after she was voted into office in May.
“It’s always been the president’s decision whether they want to sit on the particular board or appoint a representative in their place,” Stewart said.
Stewart said she has been on committees for various projects before she stepped into her position on the fee board in June. She collaborated with the former GPSA president to choose an additional member to serve of the board on behalf of GPSA.
“I would say that all of the representatives on the board actually have done the homework they need to represent their campuses,” Stewart said. “I think the voice from the Downtown campus has been very strong. They’re in a unique position working with the YMCA and the renovation of the post office.”
Stewart pointed out plans for the fee board came along very suddenly and student representatives were having conversations with administrators before they fully had a chance to figure out where they stood as a board as far as guidelines were concerned.
“I anticipate that everybody will be on the same page pretty soon,” Stewart said.
The facilities fee board has been meeting regularly since May. Abercrombie said plans for fee usage are in their final stages.
Facilities will be built simultaneously across the four campuses with plans at the Downtown campus falling behind the Tempe, Polytechnic and West campuses due to negotiation talks with the Lincoln Family YMCA.
Facilities across ASU will vary depending on the needs of each individual campus. The Downtown campus facility will focus primarily on making additional student and recreational space available on campus.
Though the Downtown campus was the only campus to not approve the facilities fee, Abercrombie said she hopes students do not need to be convinced of the necessity of the fee.
“I’m still in favor of this fee because of the greater good that it serves,” she said.
Mendes said she plans to ensure downtown students get everything they want out of the fee despite not supporting it.
“Even though the downtown students do not support the fee, I think it’s great that we’ve been able to come together on all four campuses and move forward,” she said.
The $75-per-semester facilities fee–approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in March–will go into effect once the first facility sponsored by the fee opens its doors to students.
Contact the reporter at danielle.a.chavez@asu.edu
