Despite a $52.2 million expansion that was completed in the fall of 2014, plans are currently underway to oversee the demolition of the entire Student Recreation Center (SRC) complex at the end of the 2016 spring quarter.
The decision to destroy the SRC came as part of the refreshed “C-Center” proposal submitted by campus administration, which includes plans to build a 10,000-seat multipurpose facility at the location of the current recreation center. According to the proposal, the C-Center would host “various events including, but not limited to: UCR basketball games, commencement ceremonies, concerts and other forms of student entertainment.”
The C-Center project will bring with it a bevy of student fee increases. To fund the demolition of the SRC, the campus will be imposing a $300 per student quarterly fee across the entire student body for the next 10 years. This fee will be in addition to the current $208 quarterly fee that funded the construction of the facility, which, according to campus officials, will not be eliminated despite the demolition. Once ground is broken on the new C-Center in the 2016 fall quarter, a $213 quarterly fee will be added to cover construction and upkeep costs for the new facility.
A wide number of senior officials within the UC system expressed their support for the proposal, especially UC presidential nominee Donald Trump, who stated, “Let me tell you, the C-Center is going to be tremendous. Right? Absolutely tremendous. All the people told me, ‘Don’t do this, you’re going to be crushed in the press, the students are going to hate it.’ And I told them, ‘No, I think I know what I’m doing.’ And they said, ‘Donald, you’re not going to win this one.’ And I said, ‘I think we can. I think we can.’” Trump went on, “Look at the polls. It’s on top of the polls. Right at the top, very popular. The students love it, the teachers love it, everybody loves it. We’re going to build the C-Center and it’s going to be a great deal for UCR. It’s going to be a great deal for UCR and we’re going to make UCR great again.”
Bernie Clinton, fourth-year political science major, expressed relative apathy toward the demolition and fee hike that it will bring, stating, “Whatever, looks like I’ll just need to take out a couple extra grand in loans, and I only use the gym for a week after New Years’ anyway, no big deal.”
Demolition of the SRC is tentatively scheduled for June 20, 2016, during which a public viewing ceremony will be held for onlookers “to reflect on the storied history that the SRC attained in its relatively short, but valuable time in service.”
