Students should not fund a public recreation center

This new student funded recreation center is a terrible idea. What this amounts to is a student funded community center that the public will use. The Board of Trustees, who all live around here, wants to build this $16.5 million building for Martin. The students already have everything that is going to be put in this building. Between the Elam Center and the University Center, the students have two to three times of the facilities as the new building. This isn’t for the students at all, but for Martin, which has nothing. You might say, well the city does need something to use, but why have the students pay one dollar towards this. Even though the students will be allowed to use the facility, it will be too crowded with people from the community for students to get any use out of it. All the students will end up using the facilities that we already have. So who does this benefit? Not the faculty, because they use the campus facilities. Students, nope.

The poor city of Martin, where the Board of Trustees live, and goes to church, and where their children and their friends live. These are the only people that this facility is designed for. But the Board of Trustees wants you to finance it. This will probably happen, because the SGA and its members will be able to say that while they were in office, they got approved a $16 million project. I will be gone next year, so I won’t be here to fight this, but the rest of the student body should think real hard about whether they want this community pet project.

Scott Altgilbers Public Administration Pulaski

Rec center a cash cow?

I have never seen this school volunteer the students own money to raise funds for a pet project. This is a scary prospect, that the school will just charge the students $200 more without any debate. The Board of Trustees passed this idea too fast, there hasn’t been enough dialog with the students. They just assume that the students are a cash reservoir that can be tapped anytime the school needs to raise money. We are not a charity for the city of Martin, which this project is only people that will benefit from it. The students need to take a stand against this new recreation center. By the way, what happened to the Brian Brown Greenway and all of the money that was raised for that.

Daniel Musgrave Agriculture Lewisburg