In order to ensure students are provided the opportunity for proper hydration, water fountains with bottle refilling stations were installed in new and renovated buildings during the ongoing campuswide construction project.

However, a few of the older fountains remain in the refurbished Applied Arts Building and the $5,000 water fountains are being put on hold because administrators are not sure where the money will come from.

Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King was tasked with pitching the idea of a fountain upgrade to the Associated Student Union (ASU) to gain funding for the project, however his endeavor failed to bear fruit.

King said he failed to include new water fountains for the refurbished AA Building after thinking it was not necessary because no one requested new fountains during planning.

King noticed the oversight after realizing the impact Eco-friendly fountains installed in the General Education and Student and Administration buildings had on reducing plastic waste on campus.

He said the new water fountains let people use refillable bottles, which helps with the environment when it comes to saving plastic.

Students and faculty members complained about not having refillable water stations in the AA Building, so King contacted the ASU for help.

Rather than decide as a board, the ASU allowed students to voice their opinion about whether to offer funding to the Buildings and Grounds manager or not.

Student senators based their decision on an online survey, run through Survey Monkey, which got the input of just 100 students.

Electrical engineering major Saul Flores said it wasn’t the best idea to survey students through online methods. He believes many students don’t have the ability to find out how to vote or how the decision impacts their success.

He said what the survey showed is that few students were able to participate in the survey since only about 100 people responded.

Vice President of Club Affairs Ricardo Sanchez said the ASU’s budget is decided at the beginning of every semester and a big chunk goes to ASU staff and its adviser.

“The cost of each water fountain is $5,000, and they (King) want us to pay for at least one,” Sanchez said.

“It’s not that we don’t want to (provide funding),” Sanchez said. “It is that we can’t afford to help at this moment. If we had the money we would definitely help without even thinking about it.”