Some students at the University of New Brunswick are upset they will have to pay a $150 fee for a facility they may not use.

The Richard J. Currie Centre — the newest building on the Fredericton campus — is a $62-million facility that includes two gymnasiums, a running track and a sophisticated cardio and weight training room.

The university's board of governors approved a tuition increase of $200 on Wednesday — the maximum allowed under the cap placed on tuition fee increases by the province.

Students must pay an additional $150 for a facility fee that will help cover about two-thirds of the operating costs of the Richard J. Currie Centre, even if they don't use the facility. Unlike tuition, these types of fees are not capped.

"Not all students should have to pay the $150 if they're not going to use the facility. It's a phenomenal facility. They'll be able to get the people who want to use it to pay," said Joey O'Kane, the vice-president external for the University of New Brunswick Student Union.

"It's great. I suggest to anybody to go on a tour of it and it's supposed to be up and running in mid-August, I believe. But just the way they went about trying to fund it, I think they could have done a better job of it."

Eddy Campbell, the president of the university, said having all the students helping to pay for the facility is a common practice at other universities.

"It's a necessary part of the infrastructure at any university that we have an athletic facility that is open not just for our highly competitive athletes but for the everyday student in recreational activities," Campbell told CBC News.

"It's very common at universities across the country that such fees are charged to all the students."

He said the students had already agreed to foot part of the bill when the building was being designed in 2005.

"The original proposal was for a $25-million building. The students said they would be willing to kick in, if it were a $40-million building. So, that was the agreement made at the time."

Although the student union conceded it can't do anything about the extra fee now that it has been approved by the university's board of governors, it said the fee will likely continue to be a source of friction between students and the administration.