ORONO – It’s a typical Thursday night in the Memorial Gym-field house complex on the University of Maine campus.

In the gym, two men’s volleyball teams thump a ball back and forth over the net, exchanging wisecracks and high fives.

Approximately 200 feet away, in the field house, co-ed indoor softball players take turns whacking line drives and scampering around the bases on the tartan floor, their game safely contained inside a huge net.

Minutes earlier, a heated men’s indoor soccer match was played.

Upstairs in the racquetball courts, more students are playing “wally-ball,” a game combining volleyball and racquetball.

These are all University of Maine student-athletes, although not the stars normally covered by the media. They are some of the estimated 8,000 individuals – 65 percent of the UM student body – who participate in organized intramural and club sports or just plain recreational activity.

Unlike their varsity counterparts, the recreational and intramural athletes at Maine are proving to be recession proof. The current round of budget cuts that resulted in $333,000 being lopped off the intercollegiate sports programs hasn’t touched recreation. Why? Because, in contrast to the Black Bears, recreation and intramural student-athletes pay for their own participation.

“In 1985 there was a student referendum to institute a separate student recreation fee,” explained UM Associate Athletic Director David Ames, now in his 25th year scheduling and tending to the fun and exercise of UM’s 12,000-member student body. “More than 3,000 votes were cast and it passed by a 2-1 margin. The fee makes up our entire operating budget.”

The mandatory fee of $8 appears on the bill of each student taking six or more credit hours. This year, that works out to a budget of $155,000, all going to recreation.

Although the total recreation budget is listed under the $5.8 million athletic budget, and could technically be subject to reduction, UM AD Mike Ploszek is treating it as untouchable money.

“At this point in history, I don’t want to touch it at all,” said Ploszek. “I want to make sure those dollars are going where they’re supposed to go. It’s one of the few areas we can provide impressive service to the students.”

According to a sampling of UM students, the service recreation sports provides is impressive.

“I think it’s very well run,” said Christa Currier of Presque Isle, a first-year student majoring in animal sciences who plays intramural co-ed softball. “It gives me a chance to relax and have fun. The facilities are very good.”

Kim Watson, a freshman wildlife management major from Milford, Mass., who plays co-ed softball is impressed by the opportunities provided for women to compete.

“I think for just about every intramural men’s sport, they have an opposite women’s sport,” said Watson. “There are plenty of co-ed teams.”

Jeff Hutchinson, a senior from Stonington and a student supervisor for intramurals, said rec sports provide a haven for students who are watching programs be cut in many other areas on campus.

“We feel very fortunate to have programs like this,” he said.

Adding to the cost-effectiveness of rec sports is its reliance on students like Hutchinson to run and officiate the programs.

For $16 a year, each student not only helps maintain facilities he or she gets to use, but also pays the salaries of the 40 work-study students, 10 supervisors (for instance, aerobics instructors), and 100 student game officials who administer the 78 organized intramural, club and recreation programs.

“About $40,000 of our total budget goes right back to the students in the form of salaries and awards,” said Ames, noting championship intramural and club teams earn trophies and T-shirts purchased with fee funds.

Another $40,000 goes toward the salaries of a full-time assistant to Ames and a full-time maintenance man. An additional $22,000 is paid to lifeguards at the Stanley Wallace pool and skating attendants at the Alfond Arena rink.

Club teams, which travel to other schools to play, are alotted $20,000. Overhead such as equipment maintenance, supplies, and fees to various groups account for most of the remainder. Whatever is left over each year is rolled over in a “projects” account (which now is up to $130,000).

Ames said the projects account will eventually be used for a major purchase to benefit the students.

The salaries of Ames, his secretary, and an assistant intramurals director are taken from the athletic budget, not the fee funds.

Despite the current efficiency of the rec sports program, Ames said there is room for improvement. The most pressing need is more space.

“Varsity teams are using the facilities for practice more and more on a year-round basis. And we have a lot of people from the surrounding communities who come in and use it like a free recreation facility. That means there just isn’t time and space to serve the students the way we’d like to.” Ames said.

The solution?

Ames said he hopes, beginning next year, to more closely monitor who comes into the facilities. It is likely membership cards will have to be purchased by faculty and outside community members to use the field house, even to walk in. Students will be hired to monitor the entrances.

“You can’t go to any other school in the country and just walk in like you can here,” said Ames, noting the rec fee has been raised to $10 for next year to help fund his idea. “These facilities are for the students, first.”

A long-range goal of Ames is to have another student referendum on a fee to fund a new recreation center for student use only.

“We need a student recreation center. Schools across the country are building them. They are a necessity, not a luxury,” Ames summed up.