Tamara Jarrett, University Recreation director, asked the Student Required Fee Committee to give it the fee increase they were promised last year.”The fee last year was never put in place,” Jarrett said. “It went through the committee and [administrators] but it never went on the fee bill, which put us in this situation.”The Daily Reveille reported Oct. 31 that University Recreation proposed a fee increase, but the proposal was to implement an increase which was supposed to be given this semester.”I don’t know why it wasn’t implemented,” Jarrett said. “It was supposed to be this fall.”University Recreation is expecting a million dollar deficit in the next two years, which would have been mitigated from last year’s fee increase if it had been on students’ fee bills, Jarrett said.”If we had gotten the fee, we wouldn’t have a deficit at all,” she said. “The change in the debt service made it more difficult.”Jarrett said Accounting Services refinanced the debt for University Recreation to a fixed interest rate which caused the massive deficit. She also said personnel and rising energy costs are contributing to the debt.The committee decided last year the University Recreation fee would be increased by $15 for the summer and $30 for the fall and spring.The committee is now deciding on three options to help University Recreation with their debt.The first will apply a $40 increase to the University Recreation fee for fall 2009, then drop the increase to $23 for spring 2010 and subsequent semesters.This option would increase the fee to $85 in fall 2009 and $68 for spring 2010.Another option is applying a steady $30 fee increase but would require University Recreation to find $700,000 in loans from other University auxilaries.Eric Monday, interim vice chancellor of Student Life and committee member, said at Thursday’s meeting another auxiliary, such as the Student Health Center or the Student Union, would need to loan $350,000 once a year for two years if the steady $30 increase will work.A third option would delay the fees University Recreation was planning on eliminating such as the intramural, GroupX and adventure education fees. Jarrett said she was planning on getting rid of these fees the students would have had to pay for to participate.The committee’s recommendation has to go to the LSU Board of Supervisors before the end of the semester for it to be implemented fall 2009.”We just want what we asked for in the first place,” Jarrett said.—-Contact JJ Alcantara at [email protected]