All we ask is that you read to the end of the this piece before marching on Webster Hall with pitchforks and torches blazing.

The new Recreation Center, when completed, will be an excellent facility with all the amenities found at any health club plus a few more thrown in for good measure. We can even deal with the hefty start-up fee, as current students use facilities they did not have to help fund.

Our chief gripe is the fact that the majority of students who ‘approved’ are no longer students here. The survey used to gauge student approval was conducted in 2004.

Enter the current Student Senate, which conducted a first reading on a resolution to be discussed next week, approving the $150 per semester fee for students taking seven or more hours. It’s a big step in the right direction.

The Chart encourages those who oppose the fee so strongly (but not strongly enough to have run for Senate in the first place) to make their issues known at next week’s meeting. We are sure the Senate is more than happy to hear its constituents.

However, though we appreciate the effort of the resolution’s sponsors to try and clear up this matter, the law states that the group must be an elected body representing the student government. While Senate is open to anyone, those casting the student vote today are not an elected group, they are those who put their names in the proverbial fishbowl.

This mess illustrates problems greater than a fee for a new facility. It indicates a communication problem between the rank and file student and those in office – student and otherwise. And while the petitions opposing the fee and the Senate resolution show leadership, Southern can’t seem to get a slate of students big enough to have Senate elections.

Let’s hope this recent activism carries over to the fall.