ASNIC is launching an online survey today to gather student opinions on the proposed recreation center plan.
The survey’s primary purpose is to establish a desire for the recreation center among students, and their willingness to have fees levied. The gathered data will be used to propose the plan to NIC’s board of trustees, and subsequently, the Dormitory Housing Commission.
Questions on the survey are multiple choice and include demographics, opinions on the need for the recreation center, student willingness to utilize the recreation center, and how much students are willing to pay in fees to support the building.
“Where we felt like we needed to go to next, was; all the information that we’ve ever had and promoted that said students on the campus want a student rec. center and are willing to pay for it, all that information is old,” Vice President for Student Services Graydon Stanley said.
Stanley said that the decision that ASNIC made is that they need to ask students if they are willing to commit to the recreation center and if they are willing to pay for it.
Cheevers said that in January he sat down with Graydon Stanley, Director of Student Development Alex Harris, NIC board of trustees chairman Ken Howard, NIC President Joe Dunlap, and the ASNIC adviser and accountant to discuss what would be needed to move the project forward.
The previous survey said that students would be willing to accept fees of up to $100 to support the building. The new survey has a range of options to gauge what amount the current student body would be willing to contribute to support the project.
ASNIC President Benaiah Cheevers said that if students are not willing to pay over $90, it will affect how well-furnished the recreation center is.
“We don’t want to influence support, so as we conduct the survey we’re not going to say, ‘hey, vote for the rec. center,’ because it’s not a vote. It’s a survey,” Cheevers said.
Cheevers plans to propose the recreation center with the new survey and other updated data this semester in one of the upcoming board of trustees meetings. He feels that the new survey is the first step in moving forward with the project.
“This is a much better presentation because we will have done the survey, and we have much better estimates from the architects,” Cheevers said. “I’m feeling a lot more confident than where we were at last year.”
The survey is intended to hit all lines of communication today, including Blackboard, MyNIC, student email accounts, and potentially text message.
The recreation center proposal has been in the works for over a decade, and is currently expected to cost around $7 million. Last year the recreation center was proposed to the board of trustees, but was denied with the board requesting that more up-to-date data be gathered.
“It’s been a struggle for students to have their voice be heard, but I think right now we have more hope than we’ve ever had,” Cheevers said.
