There was no protein, creatine or multivitamin included, but Wednesday the Government of the Student Body received a heavy supplement of information on the proposed improvements to Iowa State’s recreational facilities.

With the online student vote scheduled for Feb. 25-27, representatives from the Recreation Renovation Project made their case to GSB in hopes of gaining the body’s support.

An assistant for the renovation project, Nathan Pick, graduate student in education leadership and policy studies, presented numerical data to support the renovation. He said the Lied Recreation Athletic Center is currently facing high traffic that proposed additions would likely alleviate.

“Right now Lied is at 94 percent participation user rate,” Pick said. “If you visit Lied from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., you know that it’s really congested and it’s hard to find open equipment.”

That 94 percent participation user rate is simply an average measure of exercise and weight equipment usage at a given time.

Pick also noted that renovating facilities such as State Gym, on the west side of campus, would grant improvements to facilities that are “very much in need of a facelift” and “not the suitable and adequate facilities we [rec services] want to provide.”

If passed, renovations would start by installing air-conditioning in the Lied Center and would, in turn, put an additional $20 fee on the shoulders of students for two years starting in fall 2009. Those same fees would then climb to $107 in 2011 to pay for the 25-year grant given for the project.

According to a Brailsford and Dulavey recreation assessment conducted before proposing the changes to the current rec facilities, there were 5,400 responses received from students, faculty and staff giving direct feedback on what exactly consumers are looking for in their on-campus facilities.

Overall, the feelings presented to GSB were those of confidence, but a lack of a substantial backup plan if students vote the proposal down were a bit disconcerting to some.

“We will just go back to the drawing board,” Pick said on the topic of a failing vote. “There is no backup plan in place.”

GSB Senator Timothy Chwirka, senior in political science, gave a statement of confidence in the rec proposal, citing his experience with university facilities all around the state of Iowa as his driving factor.

“My sister goes to Northern Iowa, and their new aquatics facility is one of the main reasons she chose to attend there,” Chwirka said.

Pick said the renovations would not only help Iowa State keep up with rec facility trends around the country, but also provide a safer and more efficient environment for any of the rec facilities consumers.

“It’s not safe for students to go to a place [Lied] where, during the summer, they post signs to ‘Exercise at your own risk’ because it’s too hot,” Pick said. “Nobody has voiced against it – when we ask people, nobody is against the project.”