The John Wooden Center plans to extend its operating hours to 24 hours on weekdays using funds from the Social Justice Referendum, a UCLA official said.
Students voted last Friday to pass the Social Justice Referendum, an initiative that increases quarterly student fees by $24.99, effective fall 2016. An amount of $1.75 per student per quarter will go toward keeping the Wooden Center open 24 hours a day, according to the referendum’s campaign.
Mick Deluca, assistant vice chancellor of campus life, said he thinks extending the center’s hours will meet additional student demand from an increase in undergraduate student enrollment next year.
Deluca said UCLA’s campus is the smallest out of the nine undergraduate University of California campuses, so there isn’t room to expand the Wooden Center. Instead, officials are working to increase the hours of operation to make the center more accessible to students, he added.
“If you can’t go wider, you go deeper,” Deluca said. “I think it will provide an amazing opportunity right in the heart of campus.”
Jacob Finn, a member of the Wooden Center’s advisory board and fourth-year psychology student, said he doesn’t think the money from the referendum will generate enough funds to keep the center open for 24 hours.
Finn added he doesn’t think referendum representatives discussed the changes with members of the Wooden Center’s board of governors before adding it to the undergraduate student government election ballot.
He added the advisory board may look into how the referendum mandates the Wooden Center to increase the hours of operation to 24 hours a day, especially if the fees do not meet the estimated costs. The Wooden Center advisory board will meet next week to discuss concerns about staffing procedures and maintenance costs.
Deluca said administrators would look for additional funding options if revenue from the referendum does not cover the total cost.
Scott Oh, an employee at the Wooden Center and fourth-year biology student, said he doesn’t think the center should be open 24 hours a day because employees would have shifts that start and end at unreasonable times.
“We (would) need many employees … to work at unhealthy times,” Oh said. (They would) have to walk there at 1 a.m. and walk back at 5 a.m., which isn’t safe.”
Jessica Nguyen, a third-year psychology student and member of the Foundations Choreography dance group, said she thinks having access to the Wooden Center late at night would be safer than using the parking lot.
“I would go to the John Wooden Center as late as 3 a.m., if it were available to us,” Nguyen said.
Deluca said he expects the 24-hour gym to be available to students next year, but could not provide a more specific time frame.
Contributing reports by Shweta Chawla and Elisa Lee, Daily Bruin contributors.