Wichita State student government says no to fee hike for campus YMCA

The Wichita State University student government has rejected a student fee increase needed for a proposed YMCA on the school’s Innovation Campus.

The fee increase, $7.75 per credit hour, would be used to pay most of the operating costs of the proposed 60,000-square-foot YMCA-run fitness and day care center and a health clinic and counseling center operated by WSU. University officials pitched the YMCA to the Student Government Association on Wednesday.

But the project isn’t dead.

Teri Hall, vice president of students affairs for WSU, said the SGA vote – which was 26-7 against the proposal – is more of a recommendation to university president John Bardo than a mandate. The president assembles the annual budget, including proposed fees.

Ultimately, the school budget must be approved by the Kansas Board of Regents.

Hall said Thursday that the school will reshape the proposal to see whether it gains more support.

“It’s a great mechanism to get feedback,” she said of the vote. “In all the talking I’ve done with students, many students were OK with having a Y and got stuck in the details of how much it would cost, and especially $7.75 seemed liked a lot if they were taking 18 or 21 credit hours.”

She said WSU might look at a per-head fee – as opposed to credit hours – for full-time students.

SGA president Joseph Shepard said the student senators actually stripped the fee wording from the resolution and voted only on whether they wanted a YMCA – and they clearly did not.

While some were unhappy with the fee increase, others objected to the direction the Innovation Campus seems to be headed, he said. Some said they didn’t like the fact that the campus apparently is becoming the domain of large corporations.

Hall said that her take from the meeting was that the students were frustrated because they wanted more information on the project – and such information is not yet available this early in the project.

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Wichita State student government says no to fee hike for campus YMCA."