The Grand Rapids Community College Student Government held their final town hall of the semester and mainly discussed the updated layout for the pool house renovations.
“Ashely and I have been serving on the Rec Center committee and we’ve had meetings every two weeks to discuss the renderings of how the Rec Center will look like,” Treasurer Hector Cummings said.
Presented in a slideshow, they outlined what will replace the pool in the Ford Fieldhouse while also giving visuals on of how everything would look. The guiding principles for the Ford Rec Center are: a student-centric design, accessibility and equity, flexibility and adaptability, environmental and sustainability, technology integration, fiscally responsible and transparency.
The current pool area and storage would be replaced by a turf field for GRCC students and athletes to use, while including a walk area for people to get their steps in. Above the turf is a student lounge area which allows students to study and chill in between classes.
Other additions include a mother’s room, offices for the GRCC athletic staff, and a new and improved fitness center. GRCC is nearing the end of the design and development phase which will conclude in early May. Construction is expected to start around early June and the project will take over a year to complete, ending around August 2025.
Student Government also announced their new members but did not specifically name any students who are assuming the Vice President, Communications Director and Treasurer roles. Offers have been sent out for the roles but they are still in the process of confirming each position.
“The next E-board is when we may have the positions confirmed because we sent out offers on Friday of last week and all of the applicants we sent offers have accepted,” President Alex Miranda said. “I can’t really say who they are at the moment because paperwork is still being filed but we should know officially by next month.”
The campus activities budget sits at $4,674.37 and there were no new allocation requests prior to the meeting. Any leftover funding transitions into the next school year and any organization seeking money for a summer event needs to put in an allocation request by the end of May.
“We’re leaving the semester with more than four grand in the black, and with that being said, the money will be going towards future clubs and events,” Vice President Michael Zazzo said.
The remaining discussion was based around future plans for the summer along with how Student Government can improve meetings for next year.
Some notable recommendations were trying to get more student engagement and the length of the actual meeting. The typical time of a town hall meeting is two hours but the last two meetings had a duration of one hour due to the lack of information that needed to be discussed.
The next Student Government meeting will be held next semester which will be sometime in September.
