In 2002, 78 per cent of full-time undergraduates voted “No” to paying a levy for the Varsity Centre. This week we will vote “No” again. Athletics already has the highest non-refundable incidental fee, which has increased by 40 per cent since 2003.

The Varsity Centre belongs to students, and we should be able to use it without being continually threatened to pay more. Through substantial increases to our previous fees, students are already paying more than enough.

In fact, our fees have already increased to fund the Varsity Centre. The proposed $18 per year asked of us is in addition to the $23.36 increase athletics will receive next year. Likewise, our fees permanently increased almost $20 this year, plus an additional $18.

The $18 fee was rushed through U of T governance last year for a one-year temporary increase with the understanding that students would vote. This is a new levy.

If we say “No,” student use will not suffer. Our current fees cover the costs of the Varsity Centre, including intramurals, the tri-campus league and many other programs. If we vote “No” to this increase, students will still contribute $252.40 for the 2008-2009 academic year, and $126.20 for the 2008 summer session—and this does not even include fees paid to Hart House.

If the elite $53-million Centre for High Performance Sport is built (another phase of the Varsity Centre Complex), the Faculty of Physical Education and Health says students will be asked again for a levy increase to cover up to 75 per cent of the estimated $2.8 million in operating costs. This is likely to be an increase of upwards of $50 per student.

It is unfortunate that the Faculty of Physical Education and Health threatens to decrease student access to our own facility, unless we shell out even more than the increases of 40 per cent, paid in the last few years.

It is even more unfortunate that some students feel pressured to succumb to these threats, especially when it is not necessary.

Although some of these students, including the current co-chair of the Council on Athletics and Recreation, formally apologized last year for what they called “misleading students” over the proposed fee increase, this behaviour seems to be repeating. Students are only told about fee increases that could result from this plebiscite, uninformed of the additional $23.36 indexed fee increase scheduled for next year.

U of T students deserve an excellent athletics facility, but the costs should not fall to students. We’re already paying too much. It is imperative that we vote No to this levy to stop the trend of asking students to shoulder more and more of the costs of this university. The University of Toronto, as well as provincial and federal governments, must be held accountable to their obligation to fund post-secondary education. This includes cocurricular activities.

Michal Hay is the UTSU VP University Affairs. Ryan Hayes is the ASSU Vice-President. Both are members of the “NO Levy” Committee.