What is a LED Tube Light?

For over a year a committee of students, faculty and staff, representing all the university's interests, have been evaluating the need to improve USU recreation facilities. Because USU Administration is committed to responding to student initiatives on this important project, President Stan Albrecht and vice president of Student Services, James Morales, recognized the authority of ASUSU Executive Council to bring this vote to the students.

If the project is approved, students will continue having a voice during the facility's planning and design stages through representation on a working committee.

In the absence of a dedicated student recreation facility, recreational space has been carved out in the current academic facilities — the Fieldhouse, constructed in 1939 and the HPER Building, constructed in 1972. This situation has led Campus Recreation to share space with intercollegiate athletics and academic classes, causing scheduling issues, overcrowding and reduction in services to students.

Concerning structured Campus Recreation programs, this year intramurals will have served about 1,080 less students due to space conflicts and loss of outdoor playing fields.  This is in comparison to the average 5,000 students who were able to participate in intramurals over the three previous years.

These numbers are indicative of the space conflict issues experienced by Campus Recreation's 13 club sport teams, and the hundreds of students that participate in the Fun, Fit, Forever and aquatics programs in Campus Recreation. 

Additionally, Campus Recreation administers the Outdoor Recreation Program. Last year Campus Recreation hired True Blue Public Relations, a student-led public relations team, to identify what USU students know about the ORP, as well as what they want and need from the program. The results demonstrated the ORP's lack of visibility on central campus was the primary reason many USU students did not take advantage of ORP services.

Many of USU's peer institutions have had similar problems related to a lack of centralized indoor and outdoor space for programmed and open recreation. Over the past 15 years, most, if not all, of our peer institutions have addressed these issues by building dedicated student recreation facilities.

The proposed Aggie Recreation Center and Legacy Fields would provide students with facilities comparable to those found at other universities of similar size and character throughout the country. USU's peer institutions reported the new recreation centers "turbo-charge" recruitment, retention and student success at their respective institutions. All indications suggest USU will experience the same benefits.

The proposed Aggie Legacy Fields will replace the existing HPER fields with artificial turf playing fields, and include a lighting system. The key features of the Aggie Legacy Fields will include durable, latest-generation, artificial turf — one collegiate soccer field, two regulation flag football fields, two regulation softball fields, multi-lined fields for lacrosse and ultimate Frisbee, a one-third mile jogging path with water-efficient landscaping, and lights for nighttime use that utilize dark-sky compliant light fixtures.