My take on the proposed USU rec center.

So It seems like all over the news at USU is hate towards the university for suggested plans of building a new rec center and putting turf on the playing fields outside the HPER. Most of the hate is because the money is going to be coming out of student tuition. This issue is coming to vote in March. So all over the media as I said, students are lashing out because they believe academics should come before athletics. Which is a perfectly valid arguement.......unless you've seen USU's athletic buildings. 

They look like this

Ok, so first things first I'm not talking about athletics as in university sports teams. I'm talking about recreation for the student body which is exactly what the proposed rec center and fields would be for, the students. The building currently used literally looks like they were built when the college was made over 100 years ago. And they were not at all built to handle the traffic of today's students at USU if anyone goes to the Smith Field House between 2 and 11 at night you know this.

Smith Field House 2-11 PM

This isn't just opinion, its fact the attendance at the Field house alone went up 75% over the past five years according to the rec department. Oh and this is a building that was originally just supposed to be a basketball court. The new building will be made for recreation and built to house many new programs that currently are all over campus. To give a few examples the new proposed building will have room for a new outdoor recreation center you know the one that's currently housed in a place where the farmers of USU used to slaughter sheep. 

"thanks for bringing that rental equipment back just hang it up next to those dead sheep"

Also the University Health and Wellness center a free clinic for students is also planned on being housed in the new rec center, you know the one that's just a days walk from USU. 

"Gotta go get my annual physical at the wellness center....if I don't come back it means the wolves got me"

So yes it puts all this smaller departments in a central location so students can more readily access them. Your probably all saying, "Yeah but Adam we are all gonna have to pay for this." Actually....no you won't according to the official website payment doesn't start until 2015. "Yeah but those kids going here in 2015 will have to pay alot of money." No not really about the same cost as a gym membership would cost......wait for it.......a month. Yeah you get what is planned to be a much better gym for a full semester at the cost of what it would be for a month. The only people whining about it are those who don't take advantage of the gym right now. Also this isn't just about current students many universities all around are revamping there rec departments as a draw for more students to come. So yes academics should come first but if academics has been coming first for the past 80 years maybe its time we let recreation have a little cash. Just my opinion though you can learn more about the proposed rec center here http://www.usu.edu/aggiereccenter/benefits.cfm And thats all for now comment and argue if you would like if you think that the new proposed plan is a bad idea I'd love to hear from you but for now carpe diem.