The Athletic Centre has implemented budgetary changes for this school year including higher facility rental rates, the implementation of a $50 annual administrative fee for students using the physiotherapy services of the MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, higher student membership rates, a 5-10% increase on instruction programs, and the implementation of increased locker rental and clear-out fees for all students. The new user fees have sparked reaction from the student body.

These fees and other programming reductions are a result of a decision by the University not to grant the Faculty of Physical Education and Health the 4.5% inflationary increase that it had requested for this budget year.

In a message to interested parties, Bruce Kidd, dean of the faculty, noted that the refusal came on the heels of numerous other budgetary hits including “the decision several years ago by the U of T Governing Council to eliminate operating budget support for co-curricular athletics and recreation.” He also maintains that “adequately funded athletics and recreation should be a higher priority [at U of T]…we believe the universal fee is the fairest means of sharing costs.” The universal fee is a proposed tuition increase that would affect all students.

But not everyone agrees. “I think that these new user fees are the fairest way of paying for the programs and services offered at the AC,” argued one student. “Why should I be paying for a service that I never use and don’t want?”

Many students share this sentiment. Some feel tuition fees are already extraordinarily high, and that they should not be asked to pay for numerous university-funded programs or services that they do not want. These sentiments were clearly expressed in the recent attempt to pass a student levy to fund a new Varsity stadium. 82 per cent of voters downed the proposal.

However, there is a strong counterpoint to the argument. “I’m disappointed in the university community,” said Hayley Lapierre, a third year Varsity rugby team member. “School quality is enhanced not only by our academic achievements but also by our extracurricular ones. That’s why I pay for programs or services that I don’t want and may take absolutely no interest in. Athletes have been losing a lot as money gets cut and I don’t think that’s beneficial to the overall university.”

Universal fees, as opposed to user fees, are covered by government loan programs such as OSAP, UTAPS, and the graduate student funding guarantee.

In the University of Toronto Statement of Institutional Purpose ,the point is made that “the university continues to regard college life as an important part of undergraduate education.” With this statement, the university intends to show its support for the undergraduate college system employed at the university, in large part because the colleges allow students to feel part of a community-a feeling that may be absent in the otherwise gigantic greater university community.

But with these recent funding changes at the AC, many questions regarding support of athletics at the school are being brought to the fore, forcing all students to assess the value that extra-curriculars lend to university life.