The UCA Board of Trustees voted 6-0 at their December meeting to reinstate the men’s soccer team in compliance with a previous SGA-approved proposal to increase the athletic fees 50 cents per credit hour to help pay for the program.

“I’m very proud of SGA,” President Lu Hardin said. “I’ve met with the [SGA] executives many times.”

At a SGA meeting earlier in December, senators voted 29-4-2 to accept a resolution to raise the athletic fees. The resolution was presented to the board of trustees during their Dec. 8 meeting.

“We accomplished our main objective,” SGA president Maximiliano Carranza said. “We accomplished our goal to get soccer back.”

Carranza said the fee was necessary and was in line with what students want.

“We represent the students,” Carranza said. “Contact your representative to voice your opinion.”

Several members of the board expressed displeasure with feedback they received from the public after the soccer program was terminated in November.

“This is being done for the students despite the letters and e-mails I received,” trustee Rush Harding III said.

Other board members said they agreed.

“My vote’s for the students, not the letters or e-mails I got,” trustee Conrad Garner said.

Harding said: “We appreciate the way the students handled themselves in this situation. This is a hot potato that got pitched to [former Athletic Director]John Thompson when he hadn’t even got his feet set yet.”

Hardin said the role of scapegoat was just part of the job.

“Now let’s go forward and build the best soccer program in Arkansas,” Hardin said.

The program is to be reinstated immediately so player recruitment can begin, according to the board of trustees.

“I’m excited and happy,” UCA men’s soccer captain Michael Gerard said. “We lost a month and a half of recruiting, and this is a big time of the year for recruiting. Next year’s going to be a rebuilding year – we’re starting over.”

In other business, the board:

• Heard a proposal to convert alumni circle to a pedestrian public art venue. The proposal includes moving the circular drive 700 feet to the east and holding a design-submission competition throughout 2007. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in 2008.

• Accepted an approval to build a $1 million gross-anatomy lab. According to the board, the new building would not displace parking.

• Accepted a resolution to donate $10,000 from the trustee discretionary fund to assist the Oxford American Magazine.

• Passed a resolution creating a masters of geographic information systems.

Trustee Kay Hinkle was absent.