Chinook Funding

Chinook Funding

The Chinook Student Center is an important part of student life on campus, serving more than 85% of students and seeing about 297,000 visits throughout the year.

The Chinook has its origins in a student-led initiative in 2014 to renovate the former Bookie building into a student center. With student input, WSU created a space that blends the amenities of a student union and a recreation center by offering study, fitness, community, and event spaces; food service; a popular eSports lounge; and quiet areas for meditation, prayer, and rest.

The current fee of $98 per semester ($59 in summer) was implemented when the Chinook opened in 2017. In 2024, students will vote on a ballot initiative to increase the mandatory fee. Find out more about the proposed increase on the webpage.

The Chinook is funded through a combination of sources:

• Mandatory Fee

  All undergraduate students enrolled in 7 or more credits pay a $98 per semester ($59 for summer) fee.  The fee was established in 2017 via student referendum in order to build the Chinook Student Center.

• Elective Memberships & Facility Rentals

  Fees paid by graduate students, faculty/staff/alumni, and part-time students (as well as their spouses/partners) if they choose to purchase a Chinook membership. Graduate and part-time students (as well as their spouse/partners) pay the same amount for membership as full-time students; all other membership types pay a higher rate.

  Groups who reserve Chinook 150 pay a facility rental fee to offset the costs associated with using the facility.

• Freshens

  Revenue from Freshens food sales.

This funding goes toward operating costs for the Chinook, which include: 

• Salaries and benefits: Salaries and benefits for full-time staff who manage building operations, programming, human resources, and business services as well as custodians and maintenance staff.
• Wages: Wages for student employees who work as facility managers, membership and weight room attendants, and Esports Lounge attendants.
• Goods and services: Building insurance, computers, signage and promotional items, financial audit, copying and printing, equipment (from napping pods to weights), custodial supplies and equipment, building and equipment repair, recreation management software fee, phone and internet fees, travel costs for staff professional development.
• Utilities: Gas and electricity for the Chinook.
• Marketing and IT support: Fee for marketing and IT salaries.
• SRC debt payment: Annual payment toward the Chinook bond (the loan for building the Chinook).

It also includes the Chinook debt payment, which is the annual payment that goes toward the Chinook bond (i.e., the loan for building the Chinook). The debt payment is $1.92 million per year.

Chinook Funding Data

Mandatory Fee Collection History

FY24 Chinook Projected Revenues

FY24 Chinook Projected Funding Usage