A few dozen unexpected guests joined Tuesday, Oct. 28’s open meeting on the university White Paper with a specific agenda on their minds: athletics and recreation.
The White Paper, a document entitled Stepping Up: 2004-2010, summarizes the plan for U of T’s immediate future. It synthesizes a series of initial drafts called Green Papers that a year ago began gathering the opinions of faculty, students, and others with a vested interest in the strategic planning of UofT’s academic future.
Russell Field and Ted Norman, both Phys-Ed grad students, organized the contingent of backpack wearing students, most of whom arrived in the middle of the meeting, distinguishing them from the rest of the crowd. The group was there to bring attention to the issue of physical activity and recreation’s in U of T’s general well-being and academic success, an issue they say the White Paper ignores.
A letter sent to the architect of the document, Provost Shirley Neuman, on Monday, Oct. 27 by the Council of Athletics and Recreation (CAR), articulates their position.
CAR, an organization that represents undergrads and grads in a variety of disciplines over all three U of T campuses, says athletics and recreation are essential for U of T’s population. They counterbalance stress, offer health, educational and cultural benefits, and help promote U of T’s image to the world through varsity teams. Despite its importance, physical activity isn’t mentioned in the provost’s document.
Addressing these concerns, Neuman readily admits “the White Paper sets does not address a great many of the university’s ongoing and particular activities.”
But this answer doesn’t cut it for Norman. “It’s one thing not to fund sport recreation and leisure, but you know what? The other thing is that it’s not even in the document . . .it’s not even recognized as an integral part of this university,” he says.
Field, and fellow CAR co-chair Catherine Scandrett, say even though the campuses’ facilities and programs are well used or over used, budget cuts have hampered funding to both the strength and conditioning centre and fitness classes, as well as forcing the implementation of new user fees.
This trend of increased reliance on ancillary or secondary source fees to fund athletics is another of CAR’s major complaints. Scandrett says these fees make physical activity increasingly exclusive, a direct contradiction of the values of equity and diversity outlined in the Paper.
During the town hall, however, Neuman spoke of the larger picture, and of budget cuts to the university dating back to the early 1990’s. Neuman argued she had the unenviable task of cutting budgets to faculties by 4.45 per cent last year. The provost says she isn’t targeting athletics specifically, but she also isn’t “willing to make it a priority over the academic work of the university, which is the basic reason why we’re here.”
In September alone, 13,590 different people made use of the AC, but the idea that students are “voting with their bodies,” is not enough for the provost to revise her paper. Neuman says increased financial support from CAR, a willingness on the part of student leaders to partner with the university to rebuild the stadium and track, and a clear indication from SAC that recreational athletics is at the top of its priorities, are all things she would find more convincing.
CAR threw down a gauntlet of their own, urging the provost to join them in a demonstration at Queen’s Park. The demonstration would aim to solicit more money from the provincial government for university funding.
