Weeks after throwing in their full weight behind the fee freeze campaign earlier this month, members of the Council on Student Services will be put to the fees test themselves. They will vote Friday on a proposed fee increase the physical education faculty says it needs to cover maintenance costs of the brand new Varsity Centre.
The council will vote on the faculty of physical education and health’s budget for 2007-2008, which features a rise in athletics fees. If the budget is passed, all full-time students at U of T St. George will be paying an extra $10 per semester for the Bubble, in addition to $7 of inflationary annual increases. Currently, full-time students at the St. George campus pay $104.91 for athletics per semester.
The increased fees are earmarked to cover the $939,000 required to fund maintenance operations, utilities, supply and services at the Varsity Centre that are not covered by revenues from being rented out for community use.
“There will be huge consequences for the students if we get turned down in this vote,” said phys. ed. dean Bruce Kidd. “Right now, about 75 per cent of the Centre’s operating time is spent on the students. If we were to do this another way, we would have to rent the facility out to more often, leaving the students with as little as 40 per cent of the faculty’s time.” Kidd is confident about the vote.
But the move to raise athletics fees has drawn some incensed responses from some students.
“I wouldn’t pay for it if it was my phone company,” said Travis Cosgrave, a Woodsworth College intramural soccer player and referee. Cosgrave realizes that the increase would mean students would have to pay the increased amount every year, and continue to face “inflationary” increases each semester, which are usually many times the rate of inflation.
“I don’t think the increase would be a negative thing,” said Masha Sidorova, a student representative on the Varsity Board, a committee of student athletes representing Varsity Blues teams. “Because a very large number of students are using the facility. It is a great facility, accessible to everyone, and it’s promoting a healthy lifestyle for the students.”
SAC president Jen Hassum, meanwhile, feels that the student body should be able to decide which option they prefer.
“[SAC] feels uncomfortable already with voting on increases without it going to a referendum,” Hassum said. “Whenever our fee increases, it is voted on by students. Here that is not the case and they have told us at COSS meetings that it is too expensive.”
“This should not be news to students,” said Kidd. “Students have been involved in every step of the planning and implementation of the project.” He said that committees and boards with student representatives have already voted on the issue.
“We are concerned about the increasing cost of a university education,” said Kidd, “but ancillary fees are a way of life in post-secondary schools in Ontario. So unless we find ourselves in a tuition-free universe, this should be the way to do it.”
