The University Recreational Complex lost $380,000 in state funding because of the 2009-2010 University budget cuts. However, Melissa Longino, Recreational Services associate director, said the UREC was able to absorb the cut in funding.”Luckily, we run mostly on student fees and money we generate ourselves, like non-student memberships and intramural leagues,” she said.Longino said the lost funding was still a significant amount of money despite a recently passed fee increase. “The state funding was a small sliver of our budget,” she said. “But it’s still going to cause a few problems to lose it.” Longino said the UREC staff is working diligently to raise money to cover costs, instead of just relying on fees. “Like in any business, we have two options: cut expenses or make more money,” said Jeff Campbell, Auxiliary Services associate director.Campbell said all other auxiliary services — like the Student Union and Student Health  Center — are also sustained through student fees and self-generated money.This semester, students are paying more money for the UREC because of a fee increase passed April 22.The UREC increased its student operational fee from $45 a  semester to $77 a semester, Longino said.The UREC has not raised fees since 2002, despite increased operational costs because of inflation, a minimum wage increase for student workers, increased utility costs and increased personnel, Longino said.”When operation costs continue to increase but funding stays the same, it puts us in a really bad situation, just like any other business,” she said.Despite an increase in fees, Longino said the UREC may decrease the fee by $10 a semester for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, because UREC officials plan to have the mortgage fully paid by 2011. She said plans are tentative to change, but as of now the UREC will be re-evaluated by the SRFAC during the 2010-2011 school year, when they will determine if the cost needs to be raised, lowered or left alone.”Even though the mortgage will be paid, we’ll still have maintenance cost and repairs,” Longino said.Erica Michelet, geography senior, said she doesn’t use the UREC and didn’t know she was paying student fees for it.”There should be a different system to pay for it,” she said. “I don’t even use it, so it’s not fair that I have to pay for it. They should just charge a membership fee for students who use it.”John Latiolais, accounting freshman, said he hasn’t gotten around to the UREC yet, but agrees with the increase in fees.”With the budget cuts, I think it’s fair [to raise the fee],” he said. “They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do.”The University is below the 2008 state average of $139 a year, ranking behind Louisiana Tech, Tulane University, Northwestern State University and Nicholls State University. However, the University ranks below the state average size of seven square feet per student with only four square feet per student.—- Contact Steven Powell at [email protected]