The Robert H. Ewalt Recreation Center may be one of the largest facilities of its kind on any university campus, but Texas Tech University Student Government Association presidential candidate Charlie Mitchell thinks it needs to be expanded.
Mitchell, who is running as part of campaign bloc OneTech 2015, said the rec center needs to add new facilities to accommodate the rapidly increasing student population. Mitchell said with the addition of the turf recreation fields at 10th Street and Texas Tech Parkway, the fields next to the rec center will become obsolete. He said that area could be used more efficiently.
“Even if it’s just the very bare minimum like a new parking lot in that field because parking is the same problem,” Mitchell said, “or expanding the facility into that grass area.”
Through tuition, students pay a $100 student recreation fee to have access to the rec center. Mitchell said many students are paying for gym memberships elsewhere because the campus facility is overcrowded.
Last year, the ratification of a turf field proposal increased the student recreation fee from $75 to $100 in order to pay for the new turf fields. Mitchell said his plan to improve the facility would not include a hike in the tuition fee.
“I know for the rec fields, they upped the student fee,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want to do that. I would want to fundraise and get donors to raise the money.”
Mitchell said the expansion is not something that could be done during his one term as president, if elected. He said a crucial part of this plan is to make sure the Texas Tech administration supports it. The administration and future SGA leaders would be the people completing the project; Mitchell wants to get it started.
“Who knows what the timeline would look like,” Mitchell said. “When construction would start, who knows. Definitely just working closely with administration. President Nellis, I already know him but working with him a lot. I’m assuming he’d be the big man on that job.”
With a goal of having 40,000 students enrolled by 2020, Mitchell said, expanding campus facilities is something that will inevitably happen.
“Eventually, even the library is going to have to be expanded,” Mitchell said. “At UT, they have multiple libraries on their campus. So, regardless of who or when, all of these things are going to have to be revisited.”
To find out more about Mitchell and OneTech2015, watch Conversations with Candidates:
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