Thursday’s meeting of the Student Government Association Senate was moved to Watkins Auditorium to accommodate the crowd of students and community members who gathered to hear the discussion over a proposed $12.5 million student recreation facility.

SGA set up boards with an artist’s rendering of the facility, which includes an NCAA regulation-sized basketball court with two intramural basketball courts, three racquetball courts, a climbing boulder, swimming pool, classroom and cardiovascular and weight training areas. The Clarksville-based Lyle, Cook and Martin architecture firm made the preliminary drawings for the facility.

The plan presented by the architects was an 87,400-square-foot facility, but UTM administrators said that was too large, and now officials are working with the architects to design a building closer to the university’s goal of 80,000 square feet.

Gina McClure, director of Campus Recreation, said cutting 7,000 square feet from the project was a “painful process,” and her plan is to cut the swimming pool from the recreation center and add a fourth basketball court in its place.

“The rationale is that we have a pool in the Elam Center that is being renovated and will be operational for a little while,” McClure said.

The proposed recreation center is estimated at $12.5 million, which would be financed by bond sales spread out over 30 years. To fund the project, university officials recommended an $80 per student per semester fee increase, which would generate more than $1 million per year with current enrollment. Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Al Hooten told students at SGA’s forum that the fee would not be put in place until the center is operational, which is slated for the summer of 2009.

Hooten estimated operating costs to be $575,000 per year, which is beyond the $80 student fee. However, Hooten said Chancellor Nick Dunagan wants the university to pick up the operating costs so students wouldn’t be placed under further financial burden. Hooten said $281,000 would be reallocated from the Campus Recreation budget and the university would pick up the remaining $293,000 through capital funds.

Tentatively, the center will be constructed at Pacer Pond, which would enable shared use of a parking lot with the Department of Housing.

Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs David Belote opened the forum by giving a history of student recreation at UTM, beginning with 1963, when the Skyhawk Fieldhouse was the only facility available for student use. The Elam Center opened in 1977, and Belote said that at the time the multiple use facility was “an envy of the area,” but that the university quickly fell behind.

“In the early ‘90s, universities started building student fee-driven student recreation facilities,” Belote said. “We’ve gone as far as we can in our facilities.”

Belote said UTM is the only school in Tennessee without a facility dedicated solely to student recreation. Presently, student recreation, which includes students using the facilities on their own and organized intramural games, shares the facility with the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and with the Department of Health and Human Performance.

McClure said that 3,070 students participated in intramurals in the 2004-2005 year, and she said intramurals need expanded facilities to better serve students.

Campus Recreation employs 120 student employees.

McClure presented a slideshow of similar facilities at area universities, including a 73,000-square-foot facility at Murray State. SGA and Campus Recreation formed a committee of students to visit Murray to evaluate their center, and McClure said UTM’s proposed facility would closely match Murray’s.

Belote, Hooten and McClure all agreed that the biggest advantage of the facility is being able to hold intramural events at any time.

“Our goal is to be able to move out of the Elam Center completely,” McClure said. “That includes eventually moving our offices. And that opens up the Elam Center for athletics.”

If constructed, the facility will be the largest building on campus at 80,000 square feet, with the four-story Humanities Building in second at 65,000 square feet.

The plans are in place, but now the future of the facility is in the hands of students.

“(University administration) decided the funding of this facility would be contingent on approval from the students. That would be from student government,” Hooten said.

SGA President James Orr, who opened the event and fielded questions from students, said, “The senators will be commissioned to talk to students and see what they want. On Nov. 3, we will vote.” Orr said SGA will work with Campus Recreation to set up a survey on the myUTMartin online portal to gauge student support of the facility by tomorrow.

Belote said he was not sure what would become of the vacated facilities in the Elam Center and the University Center once the center is opened, but he said work is being done to determine what the empty space will house. If the facility is built with four basketball courts, UTM will have seven courts plus practice facilities in the Elam Center. But David Belote said one of the gyms is not used for student recreation, that it is used for banquets and “other community events,” even though it is equipped with basketball goals.

As for the empty space in the UC, Belote said speculative plans include moving the university bookstore into the area that is currently the cardiovascular and weight training area in the UC.

An ongoing debate on the facility has been whether or not faculty, staff and community members would be allowed to use the facilities funded through student fees. McClure told students, “We want this to be your facility, a place to call your own.”

McClure then said the facilities would be opened up to students’ spouses, their dependents and faculty and staff for use after buying a membership. Membership fees would match the fees students pay to fund the facilities, McClure said.

Sen. Emre Serbest disagreed with the memberships. “If members of the community can buy memberships, then why can’t the students buy memberships as well?” Serbest said it was unfair that faculty and staff have the option of purchasing memberships, but students do not.

Hooten told students that if students bought memberships there would be no way of assuring revenue flow and that it would be difficult to purchase bonds under those conditions.

Other senators were concerned that there wouldn’t be a pool in the new facility. Some said that they would be willing to pay $90 per semester if a pool would be included in the plans.

SGA’s next meeting, which will be held at 9 p.m. on Nov. 3 in the UC Legislative Chamber will focus on the recreation center issue.

SGA President James Orr said the student recreation center is the “most important issue facing UTM and SGA today.” Orr has spoken out in support of the construction of the facility and the subsequent fee increase.

Senators were required to bring two students to the forum in order to raise awareness of the plans.

In other business, SGA Senate voted to impeach Sen. Eric Rivera for excessive absence from senate and committee meetings with Sen. Emre Serbest voting against the impeachment.

Senate also unanimously passed Resolution 3 after amending it twice for grammatical errors. The resolution congratulates Mike Abney, John Abel, Steve Vantrease, David Belote, Rob Goad, Charley Deal and the SGA Elections Committee for their work on Homecoming.