HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Choosing a name for Marshall University's new recreation center has become a center of controversy.

The building is the latest addition to the growing Marshall campus. But putting a name on the new recreation center would take a $10 million donation. That amounts to one third of the total cost of the center, as well as the university's policy for naming rights.

Professor Nicholas Freidin is one of many faculty members and students who say the rec center should be named after Dr. Paul Ambrose, a Marshall alumnus who died on Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

"He's the kind of student we wish we had more of," Freidin said.

Recently, a walking and biking path was named after Ambrose, who researched the obesity problem in Appalachia. The Marshall Faculty Senate approved a recommendation the rec center be named after Ambrose, but Marshall President Stephen Kopp did not forward the recommendation on to the Board of Governors whose members make the final decision.

"My heart goes out to Paul Ambrose’s family, and the circumstances surrounding his death were tragic," Kopp is reported as saying. "But we have to look at this from a long-term point of view. It is incumbent upon the Board of Governors and myself to do everything we can to raise funds to offset further escalation in fees and membership costs."

Freidin responded by saying, "It is (Kopp's) job to get enough money for the university but I think there are other ways to do it."

Members of the honorary society representing sociology students started a petition with 700 signatures in favor of naming the rec center after Ambrose.