After two years of neglect, the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC) unanimously voted last Wednesday to recommend a fee increase that may save the Recreational Sports Program (RSP).

“It seems like we’re finally getting past all of that bureaucratic nonsense,” said Andrew Peterson, president and founder of the SF State Ultimate Frisbee Club. “All it took was one meeting to finally get this going.”

Students participating in Open Gym, intramural sports, and Club Sports celebrated after the motion was approved.

“I’m just glad it happened. We’ve been working on this for the past two years,” said John Lindsay, a member of the Ultimate Frisbee Club.

The 12 member committee recommends proposals to President Robert Corrigan to initiate and change fees, or delete current fees. The SFAC will recommend the RSP proposal to Corrigan after the RSP gathers 2,000 student signatures.

“We’re really just this much closer to getting it done—and we’ll do it,” Lindsay said with confidence.

If Corrigan does not approve the fee increase proposal, RSP faces a one-third cut to its services in 2008-2009.

“The university is very supportive of the recreational sports fee, and it’s highly likely the President would approve the fee with 2,000 signatures,” said Ellen Griffin, university spokesperson.

The proposal will be idle until the signatures are collected.

“The primary obstacle now concerns the timeline, as we cannot begin to implement the necessary changes until the President approves the fee,” said David Anderson, Kinesiology Department Chair. “Dealing with the demand between now and the President’s approval is likely to be the biggest issue we will face.”

Students currently pay a $55 instructionally related athletics activities fee every semester, and $2 goes toward funding RSP. The Kinesiology Department proposed the $9 RSP fee to alleviate the high demand for its services.

The SFAC previously stalled the discussion of RSP fee increase because they were unable to meet a quorum. Ten members were present at the meeting.

“What are the odds of getting a quorum?” said one unidentified committee member before the meeting.

Anderson said he did not know why the SFAC delayed the decision for so long.

“It’s really difficult for me to even begin to guess at what is holding up the process,” Anderson said last week. “Clearly the prior Student Fee Advisory Committees had a deliberate strategy where they didn’t have quorum, so they didn’t have to vote on any fee proposals – they can’t vote unless they have a quorum.”

The SFAC has listed Intramurals and Club Sports on its agendas for the last two years, but has postponed discussion for two years.

According to the SFAC meeting minutes, the discussion of Intramurals and Club Sports has been tabled since May 2006. Student Affairs failed to provide [X]press with the SFAC documents for the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 academic years.

“As far as we know, this was supposed to happen last year, and [SFAC] put it off until the year was over and couldn’t meet anymore,” Lindsay said.

In the meantime, RSP participants will be collecting signatures to make the fee increase a reality.

“I feel things went well,” said Ajani Byrd, interim director of RSP. “I’m optimistic, and hopefully we’ll have a fully funded Recreational Sports Program at SF State.