Dear Graduate Students:
I am pleased to announce that the new recreation fee implemented on June 1, 2015, has been cancelled and anyone who has already paid the fee can go to Alumni Arena to obtain a refund. All graduate students should now have access to UB Recreation facilities.
Like many of you, I was not happy when the recreation fee appeared out of nowhere. I have been working for the last few weeks to try to eliminate the new fee. UB Recreation should have made an argument to justify any new fee prior to implementation so that we would have had an opportunity to voice our concerns. After numerous meetings with UB administrators, I discovered that there is a formal fee approval process that must be followed to validate new revenue streams. The recreation fee did not follow the formal process and that fact has led to its cancellation.
I want to thank all of the grad students who contacted GSA to voice their concerns. The Graduate Student Association is here to represent your interests and we will do our best to make sure that your concerns are adequately addressed by UB. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you think we can be of assistance. The GSA works for you.
Sincerely,
Christopher Atkinson
GSA President