By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

Malachi Blaxton wasn’t having any difficulty Friday finding Missouri Southern State University students willing to sign his petition.

Blaxton and his helpers want to reverse a $150 per semester fee beginning this fall. The money will be used to pay for a student recreation center.

“Have you guys heard about the $150 fee?” one of the petition organizers asked approaching students. Some signers lingered to discuss with the petition organizers what they say is the injustice of the fee.

“There’s a lot of opposition to the new fee,” Blaxton said. “We didn’t have a voice in this. We’re college students. We’re poor as it is.”

Blaxton said he and the other petition organizers aren’t opposed to the recreation center, but to the fee. He said with the number of commuter students on campus, it’s questionable how much students will use the recreation center.

“Ultimately, we’re just trying to give a voice to students,” said Blaxton, 20, a junior from Tuttle, Okla.

He said he hopes to get 500 to 1,000 signatures and plans to present them to President Bruce Speck and the MSSU Board of Governors later this month.

“We’ve probably got several hundred (signatures) just this morning,” Blaxton said.

The fee for students taking six credit-hours of classes or less will be $75 per semester.

Construction has begun on the recreation center. R.E. Smith Construction Co. was awarded a $12.2 million contract.

Rod Surber, MSSU spokesman, said the total cost could range from $14 and $16 million.

Surber also said a student survey indicated overwhelming support for the fee. He said the Student Senate in November 2004 passed a resolution asking the board to make the recreation center a priority. In September 2005, the Student Senate approved a resolution asking the board to proceed with the project.

The 65,000-square-foot center will include a gymnasium with three basketball courts, weight machines and exercise equipment, a theater, running track, a health clinic, meeting rooms and offices. To be called the George Beimdiek Student Recreation Center, it will be attached to the Billingsly Student Center. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.