For 33-year-old Regina Martin, leisure time is a luxury that's never spent bowling or playing pool at the Reitz Union.
The UF English graduate assistant's week is consumed with life as a teacher of an upper-division English class, and most of her money goes toward living expenses.
"There are so many expenses the university needs to be meeting in order to fulfill its basic mission of education," Martin said. "The Reitz Union is not a priority."
Students will help decide the fate of the Reitz Union by voting during the spring Student Government election.
The ballot includes two referendum questions about a potential student fee to help fund the renovation and expansion of the Reitz Union.
The first question asks if there should be a student fee to fund the Reitz Union repairs.
The second question asks if the fee should also fund an expansion.
The proposed fee, which could be paid by students for the next 20 to 30 years, could charge $20 per student plus $3 per credit hour each semester.
Talk of the fee has stirred opposition from UF's Graduate Assistants United, a union that represents the nearly 4,000 teaching and research assistants who are both students and employees of the university.
Graduate assistants differ from graduate students because they work for the university.
According to Graduate Assistants United member Craig Rinne, most graduate assistants currently pay between $500 and $600 in student fees.
The Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program does not cover these fees, as it only funds undergraduate programs.
At first, Student Body President Jordan Johnson felt the entire Student Body should pay the potential fee, which he said would contribute $60 million to the project. The project is estimated to cost $90 million.
The remainder of the funds would be sought from alumni and private donors, the UF administration, and Capital Improvement Trust Fund, a fund to which all Florida public university students contribute through fees.
After about 15 meetings with graduate assistants, Johnson changed his position and recommended they should not pay the fee.
"These are students that are teaching almost half of our classes on campus," he said. "They are subsidizing the cost of instruction."
Despite the work they do for the university, the average stipend for graduate assistants is about $15,000 for nine months of the school year, and about 25 percent of them receive $10,000 or less, said Bret Seferian, the Graduate Assistants United bargaining committee chair.
The minimum stipend is as low as $4,750, Seferian said.
Seferian noted the group's success in convincing both SG parties to support the waiver for graduate assistants.
Unite Party's presidential candidate Ashton Charles said she definitely supports the waiver. Although she is a graduate student and not a graduate assistant, she understands graduate assistants' concerns.
Ben Cavataro, the Student Alliance party candidate for Student Body president, said he believes no student should have to pay the fee during the recession.
However, if the fee is imposed, he supports waiving it for graduate assistants.
"I think it's a step in the right direction, but there's no guarantee," Cavataro said.
