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1/17 THE UCONN REC CENTER: A THREAD TO EDUCATE AND ENRAGE YOU. Why do undergrads at Storrs have to pay $500 to UConn each year to use the fancy new rec center?
2/17 Well, the University needed a new rec center because the old one was 2 small. Instead of building one within their means, BoT thought, why not go crazy? Let's attract students to UConn, not with small class sizes & quality education, but with a shiny palace of workout equip
3/17 But one of the problems with this plan was that UConn just didn’t have the money. The state of CT has been defunding UConn for decades. The UConn admin just rolls over and takes it, & then solves the budgetary shortfalls by raising fees and tuition on students.
4/17 So, despite receiving millions less from the state each funding cycle, UConn is on a path of expansion and growth. They fund this growth through two kinds of debt: bonds and student debt, which are somewhat entangled.
5/17 Let me explain how this works using the rec center. Years ago, UConn had received $31 million in construction funds for intramural, recreational, and intercollegiate facilities through the UConn 2000 fund. & they put this money toward the Burton Family Football Complex 
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6/17 So, they needed a new source of money. They decided to use students like credit cards to finance the construction of the new rec center with bonds. How does this work? First, they secure high-quality bonds by making lofty promises of how they’ll pay them off.
7/17 They made the legal promise that for 30 years, every undergrad would pay a $500 fee to UCONN, and every grad student a $400 fee, & this revenue would be used to pay down the rec center. This is what I mean when I say they used students (incl future students) as credit cards.
8/17 $500/year is like paying $42/month to use a gym. And it’s even higher when you consider that most students aren’t on or near campus during the summer or winter break. This fee is not optional. You have to pay it, whether you want to use the space or not.
9/17 As a member of GEU’s (Grad Employee Union) bargaining committee for our second contract, we negotiated a fee relief payment. That’s how I learned that UConn could NOT LEGALLY WAIVE OUR REC CENTER FEE because of their debt obligations.
10/17 Storrs GAs, who generally make in the range of 10,000 to 28,000 per academic year, have to pay a lot of student fees. Once we unionized, we were able to get some fee waivers to help us out a bit. & we found a workaround for not being able to get a waiver for the rec fee.
11/17 We still pay the rec center fee at the beginning of the semester. We receive a “relief payment” as taxable income. Better than nothing, but a simple fee waiver would have been easier for everyone
12/17 The reason we even get this “relief payment” is because we have a Union that we use to negotiate our compensation and working conditions as research assistants, TAs, and instructors. Without the Union, most of us would not be able to afford to be grad students.
13/17 Back to the rec center, the question now is what’s going to happen in the Fall? Is the BoT going to try to charge this fee in the middle of a pandemic? If the State of CT is allowing gyms to be open, are they going to say it’s safe to use it?
14/17 The pandemic is proving that the rec center, which BoT peddled as a non-risky investment, is actually a very risky investment for the University. The only way for them to keep up with their debt payments is to force us to pay up, even in a pandemic.
15/17 If they do the right thing and don’t make us pay, the university will be in even greater financial jeopardy. This is just 1 of MANY examples of how UConn administrators and the BoT have, over the years, put UConn into a vulnerable financial situation (even on a good day).
16/17 And now with the pandemic, what could have been a minor financial crisis for us is the biggest financial crisis in University history. As individuals, we're all expected to save for a rainy day. Make good on our debts. & when we don't, what happens?
17/17 We get evicted. Our wages are garnished. Our credit score suffers. & we are scorned. Admin and BoT have been running UConn through extravagance and debt for decades. But those who are being forced to face the consequences of these decisions are the students & workers.
