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WORKOUT
Employees deserve free exercise, too
The talk around campus, especially within the administration, is that the faculty and staff will have to pay a fee for use of the remodeled and renovated University Recreational Center.

The new center will re-open in January after nearly a year and a half of construction and anticipation. It will include an academic wing for the kinesiology department as well as an improved gym.

Among its features, the center will have an indoor and outdoor pool, a rock climbing wall, an indoor track as well as state-of-the-art exercise machines.

The old recreational center, also known as the Rickel Building, was also a perk for the staff and faculty.

Due to the high costs of the construction and operation of the building, the university will ask the 1,460 employees to pay a $5 monthly charge. Spouses would have to pay $10 a month.

The cost may not seem like a lot for faculty members who make between $50,000 to $100,000 a year.

But what about the staff members?

The minimum wage for a staff member here is about $8 per hour. And health insurance premiums are steadily increasing.

With the new recreational center, TCU is promoting a healthy lifestyle for the students. But what about the employees? If employees are healthy then they are more likely to come to work every day refreshed and rejuvenated. This in turn helps everyone who comes in contact with them — and could boost productivity.

The university would be wise set the fees to a sliding scale where low-paid staff members would pay little and higher earning faculty slightly more. That way, the university can recoup its costs but still keep the doors open to its lowest paid employees, who are just as much a part of the TCU community as anybody.