Most seniors will remember when the Simon Recreation Center was nothing but the second-floor track and several machines, which were viciously fought over by gym rats and students wishing to uphold their New Years resolutions.
Such is almost unthinkable now, as acclimated as we are to the luxury of almost endless fitness machines and rooms for spinning and racquetball, not to mention a bouldering wall and one of Biondi’s infamous fountains.

But things like that still need funding. This month, there will be a proposed Student Wellness Fee, which will go to cover expenses incurred through the maintenance of the Simon Recreation Center such as fixing broken equipment, as well as expanded services. The fee would also cover an expansion of services at the Student Health and Counseling Center.

Students should be willing to pay this fee. Our health and fitness services are central to our success at the University.
More importantly, this is an example of a fee that actually allows students to be involved in the process of deciding how the money will be spent. The fee will be divvied up each year according to recommendations from an advisory board that includes a number of student representatives.

We’ve heard much about the importance of good health care in the past months from all factions of politicos and doctors; we must, as students, make our own effort to support health services when we can.

There are some things that should be guaranteed in order for this fee to be spent wisely. For instance, there should be an active participant or expert in the health field—either a counselor, a Health Center administrator—on the advisory board. As of now, the only people explicitly included in that panel are the Vice President of Student Development and student representatives.

As the University grows, so does our need for adequate and expanded health services in the form of a good recreation complex and counseling and medical services. It is our essential we support this  effort toward improvement in this area.