The UCSB Events Center’s maintenance and improvement fee will appear on this year’s Campus Election Commission’s online ballot for reaffirmation.

If approved, the $4 quarterly charge to each undergraduate student’s tuition will finance repairs and new amenities for the facility for the next four years. The initiative will supplement the separate funds raised through UCSB’s Associated Students — an additional $4 per quarter per student — until it is once again up for reaffirmation in 2015.

According to Adam Schneider, student chair of the Events Center Governance Board, the center requires money to remain fully operational.

“Without the $4 fee, we would lose over 50 percent of our funding,” Schneider said. “We would not have enough money to keep up the facility.”

The university constructed the building — the largest indoor venue on the central coast — in 1979. Student fees constitute 75 percent of the center’s annual budget. The facility houses various activities including intercollegiate basketball and volleyball, intramural sports, A.S.-sponsored concerts and Exercise and Sports Studies classes.

Schneider said future projects include replacing the f loorboards, installing large-screen video boards, continuing the heating and ventilation system, painting the exterior of the building and landscaping the facility’s surrounding flora.

Gary Lawrence, associate director of the UCen Operations and Events Center, said the initiative also contributes to student employee wages.

Despite the measure’s financial contribution, Lawrence said funding for the building has fallen short of the original estimated operating cost of $175,000 due to budget cuts.

According to Suzanne Perkin, associate director of Orientation Programs, the Events Center Governance Board’s allocation of funding is flexible.

“They work quarterly to determine how the money is distributed and how the money is spent is determined by the Events Center Governance Board,” Perkin said.

At least 20 percent of the student body must vote and two-thirds must vote in favor for the initiative in order for it to pass. If the undergraduate turnout is above 30.84 percent — the average turnout for the past five years — only 50 percent plus one voter approval is needed for the measure to pass.

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