The Student Fee Review Board voted to approve three fees proposed by Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement, Career Center and Athletics Department.

The Career Center proposed a $1.65 increase due to mandatory costs, the Athletics Department asked to keep their current fee of $5.07 and the SLiCE fee proposal was for a 52 cent mandatory increase for salary.

As we finish the football season and get that done, we have to turn our attention to our other sports. One of the things that we really need to do is a softball-soccer complex.”

Steve Cottingham, deputy athletic director

Jon Cleveland, executive director of career services, presented the Career Center’s proposed fee increase. The $1.65 increase would bring the current fee from $32.55 to $34.20.

The Career Center serves all schools and colleges in the University, Cleveland said. The center averages 3,600 advising appointments and 250 events a year, including seven major career fairs.

“We engage in over 800 employers and we have awesome career outcomes, which is the number of students that are coming out getting jobs and entering into graduate schools,” Cleveland said. “So we’re doing really good work.”

Cleveland also said that the center’s numbers on their budget template have been shifting as a result of the center being without an executive director for about 13 months prior to his coming in July. The center has also had a new budget manager put in place.

“I’ve been digging in with the new budget manager and there were a few places where we just saw numbers shift,” Cleveland said. “Places where our projections were a little bit off, where a wrong number was here or there. So we cleaned up a lot of that stuff.”

Cleveland also noted that the center’s fund balance is lower with the trajectory headed in a downward trend. He said that this was changed from his new leadership coming in.

“We started with a fund balance that was just wrong,” Cleveland said.

He added the center is in a period where they are overspending and the fund balance is going down. To fix that trend, the plan is to dig into the budget and get into a place where there’s a set baseline.

The Athletics Department was represented by Athletic Director Joe Parker, Deputy Athletic Director Steve Cottingham and Associate Athletic Director Matt Klein, as well as two student-athletes.

The Athletics Department asked to remain at their current fee of $5.07 per semester.

Cottingham said that this fee was originally approved approximately 10 years ago to fund some work in Moby Arena. Though the bonds for that plan are ending this year, the department would like the current fee to remain so that they can now fund a new softball-soccer complex.

“As we finish the football season and get that done, we have to turn our attention to our other sports,” Cottingham said. “One of the things that we really need to do is a softball-soccer complex.”

The proposed project would be about $6.3 million and would allow the department to shift the soccer field west towards Shields and slide softball southwest, as well as add a building with restrooms and concessions.

“It would really make a big difference to those sports and really give them a home for the first time,” Cottingham said.

Parker discussed the importance and positive effects of athletic programs on applications and enrollment.

“When we see positive impacts in athletics, there are results that relate to and translate to diverse enrollment, higher enrollment and higher demand for education,” Parker said.

Student-athletes in soccer and softball were present to discuss the benefits of having a complex for their sports. They said that women’s soccer doesn’t have a home to call their own and that the softball team is known for having the worst softball facilities in the Mountain West conference.

If the budget is left as it is, then the department expects to receive the Board of Governer’s approval for the project.

According to the athletics cover sheet for their request, their goal is to “utilize resources in the best interest of students and student-athletes while representing Colorado State University on a national level.”

The initial vote for all fee proposals passed.

Charlotte Lang can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @ChartrickWrites.