Ohio University will not go into debt financing its planned multipurpose center, and students will not incur additional costs, either.
But more student fees will be used than initially proposed to pay for a portion of the center’s construction and its full maintenance costs.
OU will use General Fee reserve funds to finance the center’s erection and day-to-day costs.
The student fee contribution outlined in the General Fee Committee’s April final report has been upped.
Now, a $250,000 annual cost will cover maintenance, while $1.5 million will pay for a full-size track inside the $11 million facility.
Ohio Athletics has declined repeated requests for comment.
The General Fee Committee report, in part, outlined a pair of suggested scenarios addressing how the council could use student fees to help finance the center.
But its guidelines were not followed explicitly, and the plans were blended into a hybrid that overstepped both of their frameworks.
The first option detailed a situation in which sufficient funds were not raised to build the facility as initially planned, without a track. In that case, the General Fee Committee suggested using student fees to bridge the gap. The committee endorsed using student fees on the center only if there was a track included.
In this plan, the student fee contribution would be required only once.
“If a student fee is used to help construct the building and track, student fees should not be required to fund maintenance costs of the facility,” the report said.
The alternative said if the necessary funds were raised for the facility to be built without a track, the committee would “be open to funding a portion of the building’s maintenance costs.”
It recommended using student funds to finance 58 percent of the expected annual cost — $145,000.
The committee “believes that students, as a major benefactor of this facility, should contribute to its realization,” according to the report.
Kyle Triplett, committee chair and 2011-12 Student Senate president, said students should not expect to see their General Fee costs increase because of the center’s maintenance, though they will foot the bill.
“To my knowledge, I don’t believe that will be a direct cost for the future,” he said. “It’s going to be paid for through (General Fee) reserves and Intercollegiate Athletics fundraising for the rest of the facility’s existence.”
Chad Mitchell, OU’s interim budget director, said reserve funds would be used on an annual basis to finance the building’s costs.
He also said the university will not take out debt to pay for the facility but will instead opt to redistribute existing funds.
“We’re not relying upon funding generated by increase or relying on a debt fee,” Mitchell said.
It is unclear whether Ohio Athletics will continue to raise funds for the facility.
The committee’s initial request to have at least a four-lane track in the multipurpose center was based on “student feedback,” Mitchell said.
Triplett drew a significant portion of that response from his 2011 campaign efforts, when he said the then-prospective multipurpose center was a hot-button issue.
“A lot of folks were asking questions about, ‘Why would there just be a football field in this building?’ ” he said. “That didn’t only come from football and basketball athletes, but other athletes and other students.”
“ ‘It’s not really a multipurpose center,’ ” he recalled students saying. “ ‘It’s just a football field in there.’ ”
He added that sentiment solidified during committee meetings when Graduate Senate, Student Senate, other members of the student body and faculty members showed support for the inclusion of a track in the facility.
There was no organized effort to gauge student opinion.
But the students’ collective voice prompted the change, inadvertently or otherwise, Mitchell said — and a portion of their fees will be spent to represent that voice. However, the change isn’t a direct draw from the student body’s bank accounts.
“Clearly, students pay the tuition bill,” Mitchell said. “But at the same time, we felt this was a good solution, not having to use money from tuition increase or an additional fee, but try to look for areas where we could re-appropriate funding for other things.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
