Student Government Association President Sean T. Johnston submitted a list of suggestions to the Board of Trustees Thursday regarding effective usage of the $4 million in the campus improvement fund.

The money, which comes from the campus improvement fee of $37.50 charged to students each semester, will be available for use in June.

Student input gathered by SGA and the Residence Hall Association concerning the fund was presented at the meeting of the Trustees-Student Liaison Committee.

SGA collected these proposed projects: Creating a new residential parking lot, improving campus lighting, renovating the Pearce and Anspach courtyard, beautifying campus, forming a student union, fixing residence hall lobbies, building a walkway over Broomfield Road near East Quads, adding a bronze seal to Warriner Mall, renovating the bells in Warriner Mall and adding a student memorial to honor students who have died while attending CMU.

“We’ll take those recommendations into full consideration,” said Board of Trustees Facilities Chair Melanie Reinhold Foster. “The fee isn’t burning a hole in our pocket. It doesn’t have to be spent.”

Students and many organization leaders gave the SGA direct feedback on how to use the fund.

“I like personal communication more than anything else,” Johnston said. “We did that in conjunction with the public relations committee.”

Detroit sophomore Coree Burton said he thought everything on the list was needed except for the bronze seal and the renovation of bells in Warriner Mall.

Waterford sophomore Candice Green said the campus needs more landscaping.

“Grass would be good,” Green said, “lay sod if you have to.”

At the meeting, Johnston discussed the procedure for requesting money from the capital improvement fund.

“We wanted to make sure we were all on the same page with how much is in there and what it could be used for,” Johnston said.

The fund is designed to be used only for physical additions to campus, Johnston said.

“It can only be only be used for capital improvement,” he said. “No new faculty, no scholarships, anything like that.”

North Carolina senior and former SGA senator Rob Harrison has been lobbying the trustees for three months because he thinks the fund should finance the new woman’s field hockey field. The field would be built west of Lyle Bennett track and finally give the team a place to play in the fall.

Harrison said the board must decide whether to implement the $350 athletics fee on incoming freshmen. If that happens, the athletics department has said it will use the money from the campus improvement fund for the field and then repay the fund over the course of a five-year period.

“They would use it to reinvest the money back into the pot,” he said.

Harrison said problems will develop if the money for the field comes from the general fund.

“This is the most politically correct way of doing it,” Harrison said. “The general fund is nothing more than a political landmine.”

Faculty will be outraged if they are fired because CMU dipped into the general fund, Harrison said. Instead, they should use the fund designed specifically for projects like the field hockey field, he said.

“(The campus improvement fund) can be used to save jobs,” Harrison said.

Foster said this is a legitimate concern but the board must examine all the different aspects of the field hockey field issue.

“I am undecided at this point,” Foster said. “But the field hockey field will be funded. I anticipate the board will act on July 8 on the usage of the campus improvement fee as well as the field hockey field.”

Money in the fund could be saved and used for larger projects like the proposed $40 million renovation of Ronan Hall, she said. CMU would have to come up with 25 percent of the funds if the state decides to support the project.

Some members of SGA are hesitant to make a decision about how to use the fund. They do not want to spend a large amount of money on frivolous things, he said.

“It would probably be best to move forward with caution,” Johnston said. “We want to concentrate on smaller, less dollar projects that can be approved and implemented almost immediately.”