Planners have come up with a proposal to renovate and expand the Reitz Union, but they still don’t have the money to put it into action.
The proposed $110 million renovation of the 44-year-old student union would expand the building to be suitable for the more than 50,000 students. Because it is still unknown where the funding will come from, the project still does not have a predicted start or finish time.
“We’ve known there’s been a need for a long time,” said Michael Mironack, director of operations for the Reitz Union. “Now we have a really solid plan and really solid list of needs, so we’re hopeful the administration will see that.”
The next step is to figure out how to pay for everything.
TJ Villamil, Student Body treasurer-elect, said it is still too early to say how the project will be funded.
“[We’re in] such early stages that nothing has been discussed,” he said.
He said a funding committee will be put together consisting of students and administrators to discuss how to fund the expansion and renovation.
Of the nearly 10,000 students who voted in the spring 2010 SG elections, about 55 percent voted against imposing a student fee to help pay for the expansion.
So far, officials have said they will keep the students’ opinions about the fee in mind as they search for ways to fund construction.
The new building would have a central focus on a student life center that would house student services like Multicultural and Diversity Affairs and the Center for Student Activities and Involvement. There will also be larger meeting rooms, studios for dance groups and the entire building would be LEED certified, meaning that the building would meet energy-saving and efficiency standards.
“It’s not just the matter of having a pretty building; it’s filling needs,” Mironack said.
He said that originally the union was built for 19,000 students, a number that has more than doubled in the past 50 years.
“We’ve made a lot of changes,” Mironack said. “But if you think about what’s been added and what’s been changed, we haven’t made a lot of room for student organizations and activities.”
One of the models officials looked at was the University of South Florida’s Marshall Student Center.
The USF building cost $65 million and was built in two years, after nearly 10 years of planning.
According to Joe Synovec, director of the Marshall Student Center, it was funded by a student fee of $20 per semester and $1.50 added to each credit hour for all students. The fee will be charged for 30 years to pay off the building. He said students use “every nook and cranny” of the center, and food sales sales increased from $1 million to $5 million.
The renovations to the Reitz Union are not only necessary to make it more convenient and accessible to students but also because the building is more than 40 years old.
