CSU Fullerton Students Reject Fitness Center Fee

Cal State Fullerton students voted overwhelmingly Tuesday against a proposal to hike student fees $150 per semester to finance a new fitness center on campus.

The 2,122 to 307 vote puts in doubt the future of a proposal by the student government organization to build a $42-million fitness center and arena to replace aging sports facilities on campus.

The student organization, Associated Students, had proposed hiking student fees by $150 per semester to pay for a planned 187,833-square-foot complex to include a gym, locker rooms, community rooms, and a 5,000-seat arena suitable for basketball, volleyball and badminton.

University President Milton Gordon has the final say on whether the sports center will be built. In the past, he has promised to adhere to student’s wishes. But with only a fraction of the university’s 25,000 full- and part-time students turning out to vote, it not was clear Tuesday that he would do so.

“The message is clear. The students already are paying too much, and this proposal had a huge sticker shock all over it,” said Mike Bourdaa, 24, a chemistry graduate student.

Full-time students now pay $973.50 in fees each semester. Part-time students pay $640.50.

“I just think it’s a shame, because students don’t realize what they are missing,” said campus swim club vice president Chris Hulme, 19.

Associated Students President Heith Rothman called the university’s sports facilities “pathetic” and said he was disappointed with the vote.

The campus basketball court is more than 25 years old and has bleacher style seating for no more than 3,000 spectators, Rothman said. The weight room, he said, is old and small. Gym equipment is outdated and the poorly lighted racquetball court has no air conditioning.

The Cal State Fullerton baseball team, the Titans, shuns the campus weight room, training instead in a private, off-campus gym.

Construction and operation of the complex was to have been paid for with bonds issued by Associated Students. The bonds would have been repaid by the student fees.

Similar fee increases approved by students at San Diego State University and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo financed new fitness centers on those campuses in recent years.

But tuition-conscious Cal State Fullerton students were having none of it on their campus.

“Why should the university pay for people to do fitness?” said Ruth Reese, 58, an anthropology graduate student. “I agree with fitness, but you come here for discipline, not for physical fitness.”