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.
Beimdiek, a Carthage insurance professional, gave $1 million to the project through the Missouri Southern Foundation. Businessman Robert Plaster also made a seven-figure donation to the foundation, part of which will be used for the recreation center.
The university plans to borrow $14 million to finance construction with student fees used to finance the bonds.
Some students support the fee.
Adam Hancock, a 21-year-old senior and member of the MSSU Student Senate, said students had a voice in the project every step of the way. He said surveys have been conducted and the Student Senate has been active in the development of the recreation center.
“It’s been a major focus of the Student Senate,” Hancock said. “The Student Senate has been behind it 100 percent.”
Hancock also supports the fee. He said even with the addition, student fees at Southern continue to be a bargain. He also said the rec center will be an asset for students.
He also said that while the petition organizers have a right to fight the fee, waiting until construction has begun is late to start protesting.
Eunice Aquino, 19, signed the petition. She said she graduates in December, so she will help pay for the building but will not be able to use it. She said she understands that recent graduates will receive a free membership, but many will move away.
Aquino also said many of the things the recreation center will include already exist on campus.
“It’s just way too much money to spend on what we already have,” Aquino said. “Most of us live on loans and grants.”
Tim Louderback, a 19-year-old freshman from El Dorado Springs, also signed the petition. He said he was opposed to the fee, not the rec center.
“Students, especially freshmen, didn’t really have a say in it,” Louderback said. He said the fees will be a hardship for many, especially those like him using financial aid.
“The extra fees aren’t going to help out,” he said.
Chris Earnest, 20, a sophomore from Mount Vernon, looked on as other students signed the petition. He said he supports the fee. He said the recreation center will be much more convenient for students than anything now available.
“I think it will be well worth it in the end,” Earnest said.
Tuition
In February, the Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors approved a tuition increase of $8 per credit hour, bringing the cost from $135 to $143 per hour.
