USUSA allots $183K for facility enhancements
Each year, the Utah State University Student Association is given $200,000 for facility enhancements. Students and faculty are encouraged to submit requests for improvements or additions to amenities across USU Logan campus. After applications close, the Student Facilities Enhancement Committee, made up of USUSA members, will look through these requests and allocate funds where they deem necessary.
On Feb. 11, the committee met in the TSC Senate Chambers. The committee consisted of Brinley Rhodes, Kaylee Shelton, Kevin Webb, J.J. Watts, Jamie Parry, Halle Hart and Kennedy Thurgood and was chaired by current USUSA Executive Vice President Max Alder.
Also present was Joseph Beck, USU Facilities project manager, and classroom support manager Clay Davis. At the beginning of the meeting, Beck explained the history of facility enhancements at USU.
“This originated because we didn’t have funds for furnishings on campus. The furniture was outdated and uncomfortable,” Beck said. “Starting a number of years ago, we were giving $200,000 in a pot for faculty and students to request things.”
This year, there were 15 requests submitted by students and staff. The requests were voted on and ranked by the committee from most to least important.
“If we were to award full funding to all of the requests, we don’t have enough money for that in the budget,” Alder said. “So ultimately, some of these will either have to be partially funded or not funded at all.”
Four of the requests submitted were from Tara Gibbons, a USU classroom support specialist. All of her requests were unanimously approved.
Her first request was for a new projector screen in the Biology and Natural Resources Building room 314 for $1,803.80. Next, she requested new chairs for the Richard and Moonyeen Anderson Engineering Building room 101, as many of the chairs were outdated and broken. This was given $45,595.
Gibbons’ last two requests were for new projector screens in ENGR rooms 104, 106, 201, 202, 203, 204 and 205 for a total of $12,626.60 and new chairs in the HPER for $6,435.
An improvement for the Daryl Chase Fine Arts Center was submitted by music professor and interim department head Kevin Olson. Olson was looking to refurbish the instrument locker room, writing that a lot of lockers won’t open, many no longer have keys and there aren’t enough for each student.
Although Beck mentioned this could be difficult to implement depending on the size of the locker units requested, the committee approved this request for $30,000.
A large project totaling $63,820.90 was requested by landscape architecture associate professor Ole Sleipness. The request was for a pollinator garden to go between the FAC and Fine Arts Visual Building. The garden was meant not only to help pollinators but also to use less water than the turf grass present on campus.
“I think that Utah State was putting forth an effort pre-COVID on making things more sustainable, but I haven’t really seen that lately,” Parry said. “I think this is a really cool idea, but it does seem like an extra versus some of the other things requested, like seating.”
Beck also mentioned his admiration for the project but brought up concerns with the upkeep of the garden. Once the students who helped create the idea graduate and leave it behind, it will become the responsibility of his team. He also brought up $63,820.90 likely wouldn’t be enough.
After being tabled to the end of the meeting, the committee decided to give $25,000 to aid in the design process and make a more solid plan for the future.
Kai Li Tullis, a program assistant for the USU Heravi Peace Institute, and Colin Hastings, the USUSA student advocate vice president, made a request for benches to be placed at bus stops along Aggie Boulevard.
The request stated $5,000 was allotted for this last year, but it is not enough, and no move has been made to get the benches installed.
“USU Facilities is in the middle of a redesign of Aggie Boulevard,” Beck said. “It will be a large construction project for bus turnouts and those kinds of things. I haven’t seen the design enough to know if there are benches included.”
Beck agreed it would be nice to have more benches along the street, but with the changes coming to the road in the next few years, he was not confident they should make plans to install benches before then. The votes were mixed, and the request for $10,200 was not passed.
In the end, about $183,000 was funded, leaving about $16,000. Any leftover money can be used next year.