An upcoming referendum will decide if UTSC students are to help pay for a new athletics complex. The $170-million project was confirmed after Toronto was chosen last November to host the 2015 Pan Am Games. The referendum will run from March 17-19.

If passed, the levy would amount to $40 per semester for full-time students and $8 for part-timers. The fee will increase by four per cent each year until 2014, when the facilities are scheduled to open. Fees will then increase to $140 per semester for full-time students and $28 for part-time students.

The proposal has students contributing $30 million over a 25-year period, or 18 per cent of the total cost. The Pan Am venue will be located along Military Trail and Morningside Avenue as part of an expansion project that runs to $750 million.

“The history of UTSC is, in many ways, a story of […] students having the generosity and vision to leave their successors a better place just as their predecessors did for them” said Tom Nowers, dean of student affairs at UTSC. Nowers said he was confident the levy would pass.

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Amir Bashir, interim president of the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union, did not respond to requests for comment. SCSU has just concluded an impeachment referendum on Zuhair Syed and has begun elections campaigns.

The new sports complex will include fitness and training facilities, two 50-metre competition pools, and a multi-sport field house.

According to UTSC’s website, alumni will have access to the facilities through an alumni membership, and students’ contributions between 2010 and 2014 can be credited toward this future membership.