Working out a plan By Jade Ellis Reporter @digmo.com As students run rhythmically on the treadmills to the beat of blaring music, lines of waiting students form behind them. Across the room students lift weights as other wait for equipment to become available. It’s noon at the Student Recreation Center, and the daily afternoon overcrowding is just beginning. “The weight rooms are pretty crowded,” said Stuart McNeil, a senior at MU, as he wiped the perspiration off his forehead in the middle of the workout. “In the afternoon it’s crazy. It’s packed.” The lines, the lack of equipment, the stale air – it could all be a distant memory after students vote next week. After five years of planning, consulting and surveying, students will decide whether they want to pay money to expand the existing recreation center. If approved, the expansion, called the Brewer Fieldhouse Project, would triple the size of the fitness center and address many of the current rec center’s limitations. The last rec center expansion took place in 1989 when two sets of basketball courts, three racquetball courts and an elevated running track were added to the facility. A study conducted in 2001 by Leisure Vision, Inc., a consulting group from Kansas City, found that students support using a student fee for recreation center expansion by a margin of 5-to-1, according to Recreation Services and Facilities. The question remains, however, how much are students willing to pay for any expansion? Students will have the option of increasing student fees by $50 or $75 per semester. They can vote against any expansion. The most expensive expansion, which would cost $43 million, would include a 50- meter competition pool, a diving well, a new club pool and lap pool. The less expensive expansion, which would cost $27 million, would include a new lap pool and club pool but no competition pool or a diving well. Both options would include expanding the fitness space and equipment, new aerobic and Martial arts studios, new locker rooms, new sauna and steam rooms, a new juice bar, new air-conditioning, a new climbing wall and new fresh air ventilation. These facility changes are intended to address complaints including a lack of air-conditioning in parts of the facility, a lack of space, the need for more equipment, outdated locker rooms, which were built in 1905, and the aquatic facilities. The National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association recommends there should be one square foot of fitness space for every enrolled student. MU has more than 20,000 students, and the fitness center is approximately 5,000 square feet, said Diane Dahlmann, director of recreation services and facilities at MU. Perhaps the biggest complaint concerning MU’s rec center has been its 40-year- old aquatic center, which is described by MU swim coach, Brian Hoffer, as the worst in the Big 12. “That includes schools that don’t have a swimming program,” he said. The 45- member swim team practices twice a day, with sometimes seven to eight swimmers in each lane, which results in bruises, scratches and occasional broken fingers and hands. While student and staff complaints state that the MU rec center has neither an adequate pool nor adequate space and equipment to meet their needs, 82 percent of students use the facilities and the natatorium. The national average is an estimated 82 percent. Whether students will continue to use the current facility or will use a larger facility depends on their votes next week. The student referendum begins Sunday when an e-mail will be sent to students’ accounts, giving them 48 hours to reply with their vote supporting or opposing expansion. On Oct, 23, pool is will be open at campus locations such as Brady Commons, Memorial Union and at the fountain by the Arts and Sciences building. Following the referendum, the project will be presented to the University of Missouri Board of Curators for approval.