The ASU Downtown community has been buzzing with the newly broken news regarding a facilities fee proposed by our downtown student government. The proposition is as follows: Next year, all ASU students from each of the four campuses are to pay a $75 per semester fee which will go toward developing new facilities and/or refurbishing already existing facilities on the ASU campuses.
The question is then posed: Why is it a necessity for us penny-pinched students to delve further into our already shallow pockets to retrieve more money for a proposition that is seemingly vague and still in a very early stage?
The fee is not so much a necessity as an accommodation to the needs of our student community. The Downtown campus, a once distinctly modestly-sized branch of ASU, is now promptly on its way to becoming a booming poster child for the ASU community. The Downtown campus is only in its fourth year but has already increased by more than 3,000 students in the past year, from about 8,400 students in 2008 to a little more than 11,500 students in 2009. By August 2011, student enrollment is projected to reach 15,000, Assistant Director of ASU Media Relations Sarah Auffret said.
Although a campus with a wonderfully constructed atmosphere, the Downtown campus has, frankly, pathetic space for students and student organizations. Some students may be aware of the student center located in the Wells Fargo in the Arizona Center, but for the many who do not, let me explain. Our diminutive student center tucked away in the corner of Wells Fargo is sincerely laughable when compared to other universities. Unlike the multiple meeting rooms and copious office spaces commonly found in the student centers of other universities, our student center has, believe it or not, only one meeting room, where every organization on campus is forced to fight to score a spot in the scheduling system, and two office spaces so small that an individual affected by claustrophobia may plausibly perish from hyperventilation.
Is it feasible that only one conference room and two office spaces are available for a campus supporting over 11,000 students? Is it just that students lose the battle of precedence to administration and classes for their own events and meetings? Is it fair that PAB and ASASUD are the only organizations that have designated offices, whereas all of the other organizations on the Downtown campus are forced to grapple with the notion that there are simply no existing accommodations? In short, we are undeniably outgrowing our facilities.
Additionally, it is more than an issue of insufficient space for the continuing increase of students; it is an issue of community. With the passage of the facilities fee, the Downtown campus will no longer be a community hindered by our stressed relationship with the YMCA. The YMCA has its own urban community of individuals who share the burden of accommodating a solitary facility for 11,500 students and the downtown Phoenix residents who also hold memberships. Who is to say the students deserve the YMCA facilities over the Phoenix residents? With the amount of money ASASUD is currently investing in our partnership with the YMCA, it is unfair to leave both parties malnourished of the proper space they need. Thus the conflict of general community preference may be resolved with the provision of additional recreational space for everyone.
Those who view the facilities fee as unnecessary must consequently see it as unnecessary for our well-advised and fully cognizant student government to think for the future–to consider the voices of our campus and to look beyond the intimidating face of a dollar. It is in the jurisdiction of the student government to implement a fee to help bring all of the ASU Downtown intricacies together as one accomplished and accommodating student community.
Our student government is simply trying to get the ball rolling with something that has the potential to be a final resolution to the growing complaints of downtown students. It is not a fully developed or foolproof resolution. However, how may it possibly be a finalized plan when it is a mere proposition to the representatives of the Downtown campus? The decision for the facilities fee is but the first step in a very intricate process.
One must consider: How does someone get to the third step without first completing the first and second step? If, hypothetically of course, the proposition were voted in favor, then the specifics of the fee would be immediately written into the bylaws and clauses of the implementation. Specifically, the sum of the money acquired from each student would essentially end up in one investment where a university committee of select representatives from each campus would allocate the funds according to the university campuses most in need, one of which that was unanimously agreed upon by the four ASU student government presidents was the Downtown campus.
In a recent discussion, I had the pleasure of having Polytechnic Campus President Matt McCoy enlighten me on his reasoning for eagerly voting yes to the facilities fee. It was McCoy’s observation that ASU as an entity is a university growing exponentially, regardless of the economic standings. The Downtown campus is in dire need of additional facilities for the benevolence of the campus, McCoy said.
McCoy’s position is not unique among the campuses. The remaining three campus presidents agreed that Downtown is where the initial and majority of the investment money would be allocated. This is not to say the other campuses will suffer or be treated unequally; all will have their say and all will reap the benefits in an orderly fashion.
As essential extensions of the Tempe campus, the three smaller campuses must function and operate as close to equal as possible. It is essential to achieve the goal of unity among campuses by implementing a fee that will, in essence, result in students paying a penny to get a dollar.
In sole representation of the students it is indeed the ultimate decision of ASASUD to decide how a small and very specific portion of students’ money should be spent. We are all adequate and very adept representatives who stand for every aspect of the Downtown campus. We are the voice of our student community. The Downtown campus is undeniably in great need and would heavily utilize an additional student and recreation space.
Abercrombie is an ASASUD senator for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Contact the senator at jmabercr@asu.edu
