The Student Recreation Center gives VSU students and the community a chance to experience the wonders of a recreational safe haven. It provides individuals the exposure of a healthy program for their well-being.

With all these wonderful activities to do in the center, the staff has decided to updates its hours, specifically on Sunday.

“We added some hours back on Sunday because our concern was the amount of people [who] come back on Sunday night and want to use the facility, but they weren’t able to use the facility because we were closing early,” Shawn Phippen, Student Recreation Center director, said.

“The student fee enrollment has been [a] downward trend for, like, the past six years, and that’s amounted to a significant loss of revenue for our operation. So, we had a lot of challenges trying to maintain hours and staying in our budget.”

According to Phippen, the Recreation Center decided to meet the needs voiced by students, and those needs were longer Sunday hours.

While the center’s budget has been an issue in the past, there may be room for change in the future.

“The student enrollment fee is slightly above what it was last year, so I’m hoping that with final withdrawals coming up in October, we don’t see that negative effect in that revenue we would get,” Phippen said.

“Less fee payers equals less of a budget. There has been no fee increase in 17 years; we had to cut hours and programming. Since students work for the rec, this gives back two hours a week, hoping to maintain where they are.”

Until then, the extended hours will benefit both student visitors and student assistants.

The Student Recreation Center now closes at 9 p.m. on Sundays, opposed to the previous 7 p.m. All other hours remain unchanged.

Written by Nadia Genus, Staff Writer. Photo courtesy of Valdosta State University.