Beginning today, students can fill out an online survey created by ASMSU officials to determine student demand for additional recreational space on campus.
The survey will be available to fill out for a week and a half, student government officials said.
ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, allocated $7,000 in January to fund a survey of student opinions on the project, which calls for the construction of a combined IM facility and student events center.
The project is meant to compete with facilities at other universities and would lower expenses for registered student organizations planning to host events such as concerts, speaker series and other larger events, ASMSU officials said.
Additional financial resources are needed to pursue this project, said Rick McNeil, assistant director of Intramural Sports and Recreative Services, adding that students would have to be willing to pay fees incorporated into tuition.
"There are two parts," said Harry Wang, a finance sophomore and Eli Broad College of Business representative for ASMSU's Student Assembly. "The demand for a student events center, and if there is a greater demand, we want to see if students want to pay the fee ? But the survey doesn't tell us how much students are willing to pay.
"This is a long-term process."
Student government officials are offering incentives to students who complete the survey, such as fitness memberships to existing IM facilities and basketball T-shirts — 50 prizes totaling $2,200 in value. The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete online.
The survey's results, along with reports and analysis, will be presented to university officials by the first week of May to create additional surveys and to begin planning the details of the project.
"If the results suggest students are demanding a student events center, additional surveys might include questions like, 'Where do you want the center to be?'" Wang said. "That would help us see the bigger picture."
At Wang's request, McNeil had classes test the survey for "format and structure" — a trial run before the survey was released.
"(The survey) gauges the demand and interest, and I think it accomplishes that," McNeil said. "Students had 48 hours to complete the survey, and it wasn't about content at all. It was about clarity and questions and how much time it took."
McNeil said making students aware of the survey is the biggest hurdle ASMSU officials have to climb in order to get successful results.
"That's the big part of this," he said. "It's making sure students know the survey is coming, rather than them thinking it's a spam e-mail."
Students can fill out the survey on the Web at www.facilityplanners.com/survey/msu/recreation.
