One of the challenges that parents face regarding sending students off to college is to encourage their children to pay attention to their health. Weight gain and a variety of medical problems due to lack of exercise are a common issue for new students. An appealing dedicated (not used by athletic teams) on campus gym is very desirable. My sense is that despite the publicity to the contrary that’s what the University of Missouri built. Could they have built it for less? My sense is that it’s somewhat unlikely that they would have been able to build an attractive inviting gym for much, if any less. Could they have convinced a private enterprise to build a facility? If so students would have been charged monthly fees. There may not have been a viable private alternative. And what is the monthly student fee increase for the new gym? For a full time student the fee is $231 per semester. Students voted for the gym in 2012. The vote was 1013 for and 530 against. The one significant downside of the fee increase is that students pay it whether they use the gym or not. Well, in our adult lives, how many of us join a gym and from time to time use it infrequently?